This paper discusses challenges and opportunities of considering the Metaverse as an Information-Centric Network (ICN). The Web today essentially represents a data-centric application layer: data named by URLs is manipulated with REST primitives. However, the semantic gap with the underlying host-oriented transport is significant, typically leading to complexity, centralization, and brittleness. Popular interest in "the Metaverse" suggests that the end-user experience of the Web will evolve towards always-on eXtended Reality (XR). With the benefit of a historical perspective, computing advances, and decades of experience with a global network, there is an opportunity to holistically consider the Metaverse not as an application of the current network, but an evolution of the network itself, reducing rather than widening the gap between network architecture and application semantics. An ICN architecture offers the possibility to achieve this with less overhead, low latency, better security, and more disruption tolerance suitable to diverse uses cases, even those facing intermittent connectivity.

翻译：摘要：本文探讨了将元宇宙视为信息中心网络（Information-Centric Network, ICN）所面临的挑战与机遇。当前的万维网本质上代表了一个以数据为中心的应用层：由URL命名的数据通过REST原语进行操作。然而，其与底层面向主机的传输之间存在显著的语义鸿沟，通常导致复杂性、集中化和脆弱性。对“元宇宙”的广泛兴趣表明，万维网最终用户的使用体验将向着始终在线的扩展现实（eXtended Reality, XR）演进。借助历史视角、计算进步以及数十年的全球网络经验，我们有机会从根本上将元宇宙视为当前网络的演进而非其应用，从而缩小而非扩大网络架构与应用语义之间的鸿沟。信息中心网络架构提供了一种可能性，能够以更低的开销、更低的延迟、更强的安全性以及更高的抗中断能力实现这一目标，适用于多样化的用例，甚至包括那些面临间歇性连接的场景。