# A Survey of the Real-Time Metaverse: Challenges and Opportunities +
## 3 Key Enabling Technologies: An Overview
Without a centralized body to enforce security standards, the responsibility for safeguarding personal data is often distributed across numerous stakeholders. This opens up the system to vulnerabilities, where malicious actors could gain control over decentralized networks. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are becoming more popular and important to the metaverse economy. However, there are risks of digital asset theft, fake NFTs, and fraud, so strong identity verification systems and anti-fraud mechanisms are needed. The findings showed that the _quality of user experience_ is another critical factor in the success of the metaverse [83]. The immersive nature of VR and AR technologies can significantly enhance user engagement, but they also come with challenges. Integrating haptic feedback in AR can improve the realism of virtual interactions [9]. However, the technical difficulties in delivering consistent and intuitive haptic feedback are due to network latency and resource allocation issues [84]. AI can enhance user interaction by making virtual environments more responsive and adaptive. AI-driven avatars, capable of understanding and reacting to user inputs, can create more engaging and personalizedexperiences. However, ensuring these AI systems operate seamlessly across different platforms and devices remains a significant challenge. Some research has highlighted that _scalability_ is another major challenge in the development of the metaverse [85]. The current social VR platforms struggle to support large numbers of concurrent users. The bandwidth requirements for transmitting high-resolution 3D content and real-time interactions can be immense, necessitating advanced networking techniques to ensure scalability. The potential of 5G, and 6G technologies is to address these scalability issues by providing ultra-low latency, high data rates, and enhanced reliability. The proposed layered architecture for integrating 6G with the metaverse could help manage the massive data traffic and support large-scale user interactions. However, deploying such infrastructure poses significant technical and economic challenges. Recently, researchers proposed _Microverse_[16], a task-oriented, scaled-down metaverse instance, as a practical approach to current technologies [86; 87]. According to some studies, _data integration_ is essential for creating seamless and coherent virtual experiences in the metaverse [21; 88]. The role of the edge is to compute and manage the real-time demands of data integration by processing data closer to the user. This approach reduces latency and improves the quality of experience. However, ensuring consistent and accurate data synchronization across distributed edge nodes is complex. Integrating diverse data sources, including IoT devices, digital twins, and AI systems, into the metaverse is essential. Integrating devices enables the creation of rich and dynamic virtual environments but requires robust frameworks to manage data interoperability and consistency. In addition, _data compatibility_ is another major challenge in the interoperability of different systems within the metaverse [88]. The lack of standardized data formats and protocols can hinder seamless interactions between virtual environments. Ensuring data compatibility involves developing common standards and protocols that can be adopted across various platforms and technologies. Cross-platform compatibility is essential for allowing users to access the metaverse from different devices and platforms [89]. The main challenge is achieving cross-platform compatibility, particularly in delivering consistent user experiences across devices with varying capabilities. Ensuring that applications and content are accessible and functional on different platforms requires significant effort in standardization and optimization. _Interoperability_ is another area of research in the metaverse, enabling seamless transitions and interactions across different virtual worlds [90]. Ensuring a cohesive experience of interoperability in the metaverse is crucial.