reduce latency and build the experience.” How long will it take? Similar techniques will need to be developed for the metaverse. Games such as Fortnite “actually predict to some degree” where the player is going to move next, said Heinz, meaning that Epic Games can “add just a little bit of latency into the experience and not ruin it”. In the same way that today’s broadband networks use content delivery networks (CDNs) to push, say, Netflix movies closer to the end user, ensuring the data has less distance to travel, the metaverse will require similar ‘cheats’ to make sure the user experience isn’t spoiled. Today's networks will need upgrading so as not to ruin the experience getty “The network itself and the protocols that need to get developed we'll have to keep that in mind,” said Heinz, adding that latency “hasn't been the primary focus” in the development of the internet to date. SamKnows measures mobile broadband performance in many countries and its figures show latency on 5G networks can rise to hundreds of milliseconds in the worst-case scenarios, something that would ruin a metaverse experience. Latency is less of a problem on fixed-line fiber networks, but on mobile, even 5G connections show great variations in latency. With even just the slightest perception of latency, it just doesn’t feel real - something feels off.” And it’s not a Twitch game we’re talking about, it’s an ultra-low latency experience because there’s that feeling of realism you’re looking for. “When you’re operating over a computer network, you have laws of physics that you have to adhere to. “If you’re interacting in real life, obviously there’s zero lag whatsoever,” he said. Simply carrying that sheer weight of data at speeds fast enough to avoid lag is going to require new networking infrastructure, new protocols and standards, according to Heinz. Imagine a virtual universe where every facial movement, every gesture, every movement of the lips has to be replicated in real time to make your avatar look convincing. It really boils down to our old friends latency, bandwidth and reliability.” At a network level, it's funny, but it's the same problems that we've faced throughout all of networking history. “You need highly concurrent, highly persistent experiences that are on a scale and magnitude that we haven't really yet seen before. “I think the biggest challenges that are ahead of us are really at the foundational level,” he told the SamKnows Podcast. Heinz believes that even today’s massive data centers and increasingly fast broadband networks aren’t going to cope with the demands of the metaverse. Jerry Heinz is the co-founder of Ball Metaverse Research Partners, a company that is doing an enormous amount of research into the metaverse and what it will take to get us there. Networks on the scale we’ve never seen before
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