Analyzing the Effect of TCP and Server Population on Massively Multiplayer Games. Suznjevic, M., Saldana, J., Matijasevic, M., Fernandez-Navajas, J., & Ruiz-Mas, J. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER GAMES TECHNOLOGY, HINDAWI LTD, ADAM HOUSE, 3RD FLR, 1 FITZROY SQ, LONDON, W1T 5HF, ENGLAND, 2014.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Many Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) use TCP flows for communication between the server and the game clients. The utilization of TCP, which was not initially designed for (soft) real-time services, has many implications for the competing traffic flows. In this paper we present a series of studies which explore the competition between MMORPG and other traffic flows. For that aim, we first extend a source-based traffic model, based on player's activities during the day, to also incorporate the impact of the number of players sharing a server (server population) on network traffic. Based on real traffic traces, we statistically model the influence of the variation of the server's player population on the network traffic, depending on the action categories (i.e., types of in-game player behaviour). Using the developed traffic model we prove that while server population only modifies specific action categories, this effect is significant enough to be observed on the overall traffic. We find that TCP Vegas is a good option for competing flows in order not to throttle the MMORPG flows and that TCP SACK is more respectful with game flows than other TCP variants, namely, Tahoe, Reno, and New Reno. Other tests show that MMORPG flows do not significantly reduce their sending window size when competing against UDP flows. Additionally, we study the effect of RTT unfairness between MMORPG flows, showing that it is less important than in the case of network-limited TCP flows.
@article{WOS:000214737500010,
abstract = {Many Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) use TCP
flows for communication between the server and the game clients. The
utilization of TCP, which was not initially designed for (soft)
real-time services, has many implications for the competing traffic
flows. In this paper we present a series of studies which explore the
competition between MMORPG and other traffic flows. For that aim, we
first extend a source-based traffic model, based on player's activities
during the day, to also incorporate the impact of the number of players
sharing a server (server population) on network traffic. Based on real
traffic traces, we statistically model the influence of the variation of
the server's player population on the network traffic, depending on the
action categories (i.e., types of in-game player behaviour). Using the
developed traffic model we prove that while server population only
modifies specific action categories, this effect is significant enough
to be observed on the overall traffic. We find that TCP Vegas is a good
option for competing flows in order not to throttle the MMORPG flows and
that TCP SACK is more respectful with game flows than other TCP
variants, namely, Tahoe, Reno, and New Reno. Other tests show that
MMORPG flows do not significantly reduce their sending window size when
competing against UDP flows. Additionally, we study the effect of RTT
unfairness between MMORPG flows, showing that it is less important than
in the case of network-limited TCP flows.},
address = {ADAM HOUSE, 3RD FLR, 1 FITZROY SQ, LONDON, W1T 5HF, ENGLAND},
author = {Suznjevic, Mirko and Saldana, Jose and Matijasevic, Maja and Fernandez-Navajas, Julian and Ruiz-Mas, Jose},
doi = {10.1155/2014/602403},
issn = {1687-7047},
journal = {INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER GAMES TECHNOLOGY},
publisher = {HINDAWI LTD},
title = {{Analyzing the Effect of TCP and Server Population on Massively Multiplayer Games}},
type = {Article},
volume = {2014},
year = {2014}
}

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