Social media demand can become enormous overnight, and the metaverse is a prime social-media phenomena, with a big potential problem. All those humans buzzing about in the virtual world of the metaverse would create some awkward moments unless all the avatars were controlled in real time with minimal delay. The problem is #latency.
Significant loss of synchrony with the real world is an ugly problem for metaversing, and we can expect Meta and others to work to correct it by controlling latency. If that happens, there’s hope for those #enterprise #edge and #IoT applications. Metaverse latency control is more than just edge computing, it’s also edge connectivity, meaning consumer broadband. Faster broadband offers lower latency, but there’s more to latency control than just speed. You need to minimize the handling, the number of hops or devices between the user who’s pushing an avatar around a metaverse, and the software that understands what that means to what the user “sees” and what others see as well. Think fiber and cable TV, and a fast path between the user and the nearest edge, which is likely to be in a nearby major metro area. And think “everywhere” because, while the metaverse may be nowhere in a strict reality sense, it’s everywhere that social-media humans are, which is everywhere.
