A hybrid peer-to-peer middleware plugin for an existing client/server massively multiplayer online game

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Massively Multiplayer Online Games are large virtual worlds co-inhabited by playersover the Internet. As up to thousands of players can be simultaneously connected tothe game, the server and network architectures are required to scale e ciently. Thetraditional client/server model results in a heavynancial burden for operation ofthe server. Various alternative architectures have been proposed as a replacementfor the traditional model, but the adoption of these alternatives are slow as theypresent their own set of challenges.The proposed hybrid system is based on many di erent architectures and peer-topeerconcepts that were reviewed in the literature. It aims to provide a compromisefor existing, commercially successful MMOGs to introduce peer-to-peer componentsinto their systems with no requirement of modi cation to their server or clientsoftware.With the system's design presented, the middleware software is implementedand deployed in a real, controlled environment alongside an Ultima Online gameserver and its clients. The movement game mechanic was distributed amongst thepeers while the others remained the responsiblity of the server. A number of performanceexperiments are performed to measure the e ects of the modi ed systemover the original client/server system on bandwidth, latency, and hardware impact.The results revealed an increase in the server bandwidth usage by 35%, slave bandwidthusage by 17% and supernode bandwiwdth usage by 3111%. The latencies ofdistributed server mechanics were reduced by up to 94%, while the non-distributedlatencies were increased by up to 6000%. These results suggested that a system withabsolutely no modi cation to the server is unlikely to provide the desired bene ts.However, with 2 minor modi cations to the server, the middleware is able to reduceboth server load and player latencies. The server bandwidth can be reduced by39%, while the supernode's bandwidth is increased only by 1296%. The distributedlatencies maintain their reduction while non-distributed latencies remain unchangedfrom the C/S system.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University