The Role of Network Slicing and Edge Computing in the Metaverse Realization

Metaverse is the latest technological hype in the modern world due to its potential for revolutionizing the digital visual perspective. With the COVID-19 pandemic, most industries have moved towards digitization, and the metaverse is identified as one of the most promising platforms for such a transition, as it provides a three-dimensional (3D) immersive experience for the users. Currently, most digital service providers and organizations are actively working on metaverse- based applications. In addition, there has been a rapid increase on research work involving metaverse realization. Launching a large scale metaverse in the real world is a challenging task. However, fifth-generation (5G) and beyond 5G (B5G) technologies are envisioned to improve the feasibility of pragmatic deployments. Although, there are several conceptual designs available, actual adaptations of the concepts are still limited. This survey focuses on providing a practical approach for metaverse realization using 5G and B5G technologies. Specifically, We discuss the importance of network slicing (NS) and multi-access edge computing (MEC) as emerging 5G technologies for enabling the realization of the metaverse. We first introduce the motivation behind metaverse for future envisaged technologies. Next, we present a holistic high-level framework for metaverse realization based on network slicing and edge computing. Moreover, we discuss the futuristic metaverse applications, their technical requirements, and methods to satisfy the requirements. Finally, we highlight the deployment challenges and possible approaches to overcome them for an actual metaverse realization.