Metaverse is the new and emerging tech in the recent era, and what an era to be in, where edge computing exists, which can help metaverse and its reach to touch new heights than just being a concept. The term “Metaverse” is comprised of two words “meta”, which means beyond, and “verse”, which means the universe; hence we can see what experience the metaverse has prepared for the users, that is exploring the technology beyond this universe. Moreover, it is mainly used to help conceptualise the next-gen of the internet, commonly known as Web 3.0.
In simpler terms, a metaverse is a 3D space comprising 3D characters in the same 3D realities ecosystem. These characters inside the 3D space can help users create, communicate and perceive the data in more interactive ways. Moreover, the users can communicate with fellow users, which can exist in both virtual and real dimensions. This ideology to humanise and create a virtual society similar to ours can create various possibilities for the users to explore. The pivotal technologies used to achieve this are; Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, IoT, AI, Blockchain, 3d modelling and Edge Computing.
In the upcoming sections of this blog, a brief discussion of the metaverse along with how edge computing is helping to be a pivotal building block for it to develop and achieve an “ultra-real” metaverse will be carried out.
Relation between Metaverse and Edge
Before understanding how and what Edge computing can do to help Metaverse, let us have a look at what edge computing is. Edge computing is a paradigm where data, applications and processing of the data all reside in the device on the site itself, that is, the edge. Like cloud computing, edge computing provides the same services for both computing and data storage. Unlike cloud architecture, most of these services are concentrated on the device itself.
Furthermore, Edge computing enhances the existing services by reducing the latency of the services and providing a seamless user experience. The implementation of edge computing well backs the new and upcoming applications for the metaverse. These concepts can range from gathering data from microsensors and IoT devices to storing the data on the edge device itself, helping the user feel and experience the virtual reality without lags.
The edge computing storage, unlike the conventional data centres, can be distributed globally over the heterogeneous platform; this results in local data processing being executed on the edge device itself instead of waiting for the results to come from the cloud, making the experience of metaverse smooth and out worldly.
Interesting Read: ‘Edge AI: The future of AI is here!’
Building Blocks of Metaverse
After observing how edge computing is switching up the metaverse scene, let’s look at what constitutes the building blocks of the Metaverse and why edge computing is proving its worth by meeting the base requirements efficiently. While the metaverse is based on physical infrastructure, AR/VR-based use cases are the major ones as these devices provide an immersive user experience.
For these services to work efficiently, there are a few basic requirements which are as follows:
- Low Latency
- Compute, virtualise and store data
- Seamless internet connectivity
The above requirements coincide with the workings and use cases of edge computing. It meets the above requirements and provides an additional layer of security to secure the data storage system on devices to protect sensitive data about the user. Based on the above, using edge computing can provide an upper hand, which are as follows:
- Ultra reduced latency
- Best data storage and processing site
- Better and rigorous analysis of locally stored data
- Conserve network bandwidth
- Secure the platform at multiple levels
- Lesser bandwidth results in less power consumption and cost-effective
- Faster operations and decisions compared to cloud
Digestive Read: ‘6 Most Innovative Implementation Of Edge AI’
Conclusion
Edge computing and Metaverse both are in the stage of their infancy. According to Statista, even in its early stages, the metaverse has the potential to cover the market from 3.75 trillion USD to 12.46 trillion USD in the upcoming time. It has also been recognised as the future of the web. Similarly, edge computing has also seen a rise and is projected to reach around 274 billion USD by the year 2025
Combined, they have an unparalleled potential to support each other to provide an immersive experience to the user in vivid virtual reality. In order to provide such an experience, the configuration must have low latency and fast computing. Edge computing helps stack bundles of GPUs, AI processors and networking modems on the device resulting in a lightning-fast response that the naked eye can’t detect, providing a seamless experience to the user. Thus, the future of the metaverse will be highly dependent on the progress of edge computing in the upcoming days. The recent development in the edge computing sector has shown that it will soon cover a significant market sector. With edge computing’s popularity on the rise, the amalgamation of the metaverse and its growth is inevitable.
