# The Microverse: A Task-Oriented Edge-Scale Metaverese
## 1 Introduction  
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology combined with evolving artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) promote unprecedented advancements in ubiquitous and seamless services for human activities [1]. The technical evolution in internet technology has made smart cities a reality for the foreseeable future. Over the past decade, since the concept of \"smart cities\" was officially defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2014, more than 200 smart city projects have been launched [2]. Many experiences and lessons were learned, preparing society for a more intelligent, efficient, and sustainable future [3]. Many open questions are yet to be addressed in designing, creating, managing, and living in a smart city. One of the top challenges is the _scalability_ of today's smart citysolutions to an enormous amount of sensors. Not only does the amount of data being generated continuously and drastically grow but also the complexities increase significantly as more intelligent functions are added. For example, IoT network infrastructures are often under different administrations when initially built, but more novel applications or services require resources across domain boundaries. Network slicing (NS) technology has been identified as an acceptable approach to address cross-domain services [4; 5]. NS allows users to create logical networks for individual applications using network devices belonging to different domains. However, creating and managing a network slice that involves sensing, computing, communicating, and data-storing devices deployed across domains is nontrivial. There is a compelling need for a holistic solution that enables full-spectrum smart city operation monitoring, analyzing, decision making, and the taking of actions dynamically in real time. Recently, the metaverse has attracted interest from both academia and industry [6]. Many expect the metaverse to redefine how people live, work, and socialize by enabling a seamless interweaving of the physical world with a virtual cyberspace [7]; while the dawn of a new era of the immersive, interconnected 3D world appears possible thanks to a wave of revolutionary technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and virtual digital twins (DTs), these technologies also bring many new challenges and open problems before the comprehensive digital landscape of the metaverse becomes ubiquitous in daily life. Concerns exist for privacy and security that might be addressed with blockchain technology. Meanwhile, scalability is still among the top concerns [8]. Inspired by the vision of the metaverse and the hierarchical edge-fog-cloud computing paradigm, a task- or application-oriented, local-scale, immersive, interconnected 3D world is envisioned. In this paper, the _microverse_, a task-oriented, edge-scale, pragmatic solution for smart city applications, is proposed, which involves IoT resources under multiple administration network domains. Instead of creating a metaverse that mirrors the entire smart city in one digital world, each microverse instance is a manageable digital twin of an individual network slice for a specific task. Following the edge-fog-cloud computing paradigm, the microverse enables on-site/near-site data collection, processing, information fusion, and real-time decision making. This paper's primary contributions are outlined as follows:  
* A hierarchical microverse framework is proposed. The microverse approach redefines the metaverse into a dynamic, purpose-built ecosystem that streamlines task completion, enhances collaboration, and offers immersive professional settings. * Using smart public safety surveillance (SPSS) for smart communities as a case study, a microverse instance is designed and created that contains unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground units, and sensing networks. Leveraging technologies such as DTs and AI, the SPSS prototype mirrors objects in virtual space and is capable of surveillance tasks.