Slicing4Meta: An Intelligent Integration Architecture with Multi-Dimensional Network Resources for Metaverse-as-a-Service in Web 3.0

Abstract

As the next-generation Internet paradigm, Web 3.0 encapsulates the expectations of immersive and interactive experiences in a decentralized manner. Metaverse, a virtual world interacting with the physical world, is becoming one of the most potential applications to push forward with Web 3.0. In the Metaverse, users expect to tailor immersive and interactive experiences by customizing real-time Metaverse services (e.g., augmented/virtual reality and digital twin) in the three-dimensional virtual world. Nevertheless, there are still no unified solutions for the Metaverse services in terms of orchestration and management. Therefore, continuous and seamless upgrading of network systems is essential yet challenging to support Metaverse services. In this article, to provide scalable solutions for tailoring Metaverse services, we propose a new concept, named Metaverse-as-a-Service (MaaS), where users only need to purchase the MaaS models that are needed (e.g., computing, communications, and data resources) to achieve their required Metaverse services. Furthermore, to unify the orchestration and management of MaaS models, we propose a novel architecture, called Slicing4Meta, to customize Metaverse services by integrating MaaS models and the associated multi-dimensional resources. Additionally, we propose the classification for typical Metaverse services based on the quality of experience (QoE) requirements and illustrate how to fulfill the QoE requirements under the Slicing4Meta architecture. We then illustrate a virtual travel study case, in which we examine the relationship between the QoE and the multi-dimensional resources by quantitatively modeling the QoE of Metaverse users. Finally, we discuss some open challenges of Slicing4Meta and propose potential solutions to address the challenges.