5G/6G-Enabled Metaverse Technologies: Taxonomy, Applications, and Open Security Challenges with Future Research Directions

Abstract

Internet technology has proven to be a vital contributor to many cutting-edge innovations that have given humans access to interact virtually with objects. Until now, numerous virtual systems had been developed for digital transformation to enable access to thousands of services and applications that range from virtual gaming to social networks. However, the majority of these systems lack to maintain consistency during interconnectivity and communication. To explore this discussion, in the recent past a new term, ”Metaverse” has been introduced, which is the combination of ”meta” and ”universe” that describes a shared virtual environment, where a number of technologies, such as fourthgeneration (4 th) and fifth-generation (5 th) technologies, virtual reality, machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence, etc, work collectively to support each other for the sake of one objective, which is the virtual accessibility of objects via one network platform. With the development, integration, and virtualization of technologies, a lot of improvement in daily life applications is expected, but at the same time, there is a big challenge for the research community to secure this platform from external and external threats, because this technology is exposed to many cybersecurity attacks. Hence, it is imperative to systematically review and understand the taxonomy, applications, open security challenges, and future research directions of the emerging Metaverse technologies. In this paper, we have made useful efforts to present a comprehensive survey regarding Metaverse technology by taking into account the aforesaid parameters. Following this, in the initial phase, we will explore the future of Metaverse in the presence of 4 th and 5 th generation technologies in the context of interoperability and security. Thereafter, we will discuss the possible attacks to set a preface for the open security challenges. Based on underlined security challenges, we will suggest potential research directions that could be beneficial to address these challenges cost-effectively.