Metaverse for 6G and Beyond: The Next Revolution and Deployment Challenges

Metaverse is an evolving paradigm for the next-generation Internet, intends to provide 3D immersive experiences and self–sustaining virtual shared space by utilising a wide range of relevant technologies. Due to rapid advancement in technologies such as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality and virtual reality (VR) in real-time applications, metaverse is proceeding from science fiction to extended reality (XR). In this article, we present the vision of metaverse's future in wireless technologies, including 6G and beyond. We illustrate the framework of metaverse-based wireless systems, describing the requirements and fundamental technologies to be integrated with 6G to realize the metaverse. We consider a case study of an autonomous vehicle's remote assistance system that leverages VR technology, 360° live stream, and a mobile edge-enabled distributed computing paradigm. The simulation findings demonstrate the effectiveness of employing VR technology to create an immersive environment for remotely controlling and supporting autonomous vehicles to enable quicker decision-making. Furthermore, we compare several potential future networks, discuss the deployment challenges, and present cloud-edge-end framework-driven solutions to employ Next-G wireless systems in the metaverse. Finally, we outline several open research directions to realize the true vision of metaverse towards 6G and beyond.