18-05-2012, 02:36 PM
Towards 3D Internet:
Alpcan-3D_Internet.pdf (Size: 203.12 KB / Downloads: 256)
Introduction
The Internet is evolving to become the de-facto cyberspace
or virtual environment facilitating communication,
business, and entertainment on a global scale. On the other
hand, metaverses or virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL)
or World of Warcraft (WoW) are much younger when compared
to other Web technologies. Today, the success and
momentum of virtual worlds are undeniable. The market
for MMOGs is estimated to be worth more than one billion
US dollars and such metaverses are fast becoming ”significant
platforms” in the converged media world according to
some analysts. Virtual worlds are increasingly seen as more
than game and interpreted within a business context rather
than entertainment.
3D Internet: Why?
One of the often heard arguments against the 3D Internet
is in the form of the question “why do we need it?” For most
of its users the Internet is a familiar, comfortable medium
where we communicate with each other, get our news, shop,
pay our bills, and more. We are indeed so much used to
and dependend on its existence that we don’t think about
its nature anymore just like we do not think about Ohm’s
law when we turn on the lights. From this perspective what
we have, i.e.
3D Internet: What?
We present and discuss a 3D Internet architecture as an
illustrative example. It shares the time-tested main principles
and underlying architecture of the current Internet as
well as many semantic web concepts. The operational principles
the 3D Internet shares with its predecessor include
open and flexible architecture, open protocols, simplicity at
the network core, intelligence at the edges, and distributed
implementation. A simple graphical depiction of the proposed
3D Internet architecture is provided in Figure 1. We
adopt here the terms universe, world, and webplace as 3D
counterparts of WWW, website, and subdomain, respectively.
Intelligent Environments
Emerging fields such as ubiquitous computing and ambient
intelligence draw heavily from adaptive and intelligent
algorithms. They are concerned with computing and networking
technology that is unobtrusively embedded in the
everyday environment of human users. The emphasis is on
user-friendliness, efficient and distributed services support,
user empowerment, and support for human interactions. All
this assumes a shift away from desktop or portable computers
to a variety of devices accessible via intelligent interfaces.