Metaverse is the next-generation Internet after the web and the mobile network revolutions, in which humans (acting as digital avatars) can interact with other people and software applications in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world. In this presentation, we first briefly introduce major concepts of Metaverse and the virtual service management. Then, we discuss applications of game theory in the virtual service management. First, we consider that virtual reality (VR) users in the wireless edge-empowered Metaverse can immerse themselves in the virtual through the access of VR services offered by different providers. The VR service providers (SPs) have to optimize the VR service delivery efficiently and economically given their limited communication and computation resources. An incentive mechanism can be thus applied as an effective tool for managing VR services between providers and users. Therefore, we propose a learning-based incentive mechanism framework for VR services in the Metaverse. Second, we consider virtual services provided through the digital twin, i.e., a digital replication of real-world entities in the Metaverse. The real-world data collected by IoT devices and sensors are key for synchronizing the two worlds. A group of IoT devices are employed by the Metaverse platform to collect such data on behalf of virtual SPs. Device owners dynamically select a VSP to maximize rewards. We adopt hybrid evolutionary dynamics, in which heterogeneous device owner populations can employ different revision protocols to update their strategies. To this end, we discuss some important research directions in Metaverse virtual service management.

Biography:

Dr. Dusit Niyato is a professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He received his Ph.D. in ECE from the University of Manitoba in 2008. Dusit's research interests are in the areas of distributed collaborative machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), edge intelligent metaverse, mobile and distributed computing, and wireless  networks. Dusit won the Best Young Researcher Award of IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Asia Pacific, 2011 IEEE ComSoc Fred W. Ellersick Prize Paper Award, the IEEE Computer Society Middle Career Researcher Award for Excellence in Scalable Computing in 2021, and Distinguished Technical Achievement Recognition Award of IEEE ComSoc in 2022. Currently, Dusit is serving as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, an area editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, associate editor of IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Network, and ACM Computing Surveys. He is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of IET.

This work proposes Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) ordering service needed for block formation in permissioned blockchain environments. Contrary to current PBFT implementations that only provide a single point of entry to the ordering service, we allow each ordering node to act as an entry point that proposes and conducts the consensus process of including new record in the distributed ledger. To ensure atomicity of record insertion in distributed ledger, we have developed a bandwidth reservation protocol that uses a modification of CSMA/CA protocol to regulate access to the broadcast medium formed by the P2P network of TCP connections between orderers. We have modeled record insertion service time in a cluster where ordering nodes have random position within Cartesian coordinate system. We have also modeled total request access time to the ledger which includes waiting time in the ordererís queue and record insertion time. These models are used to evaluate system performance under variable request rate ordering service, variable number of nodes and variable physical cluster dimensions. We also address cluster interconnections which can increase coverage and capacity of PBFT system.

Biography:

Dr. 

Jelena Mišić is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Ryerson University, Canada. She received her PhD in Computer Engineering from University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1993. She is an internationally recognized expert in the area of IoT, blockchain, wireless networking and network security, where she has authored or co-authored four books, 155+ journal papers, 24 book chapters, and 215+ conference papers. She has chaired more than a dozen major international events and guest-edited more than a dozen special issues of various journals. She serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, IEEE Network, ACM Computing Surveys and Ad Hoc Networks journal (published by Elsevier). She is an IEEE Fellow, ACM member and serves as IEEE VTS distinguished lecturer.