Title: Optimisation of capacity in various 802.11 gaming scenarios

Authors: Hanghang Qi, David Malone, Dmitri Botvich

Addresses: Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland. ' Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland. ' Telecommunications Software & Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

Abstract: As IEEE 802.11 WLANs are widely deployed and the popularity of computer games continues increasing, real-time multiplayer games are increasingly played over 802.11 networks. In this paper, we consider the issues of games over 802.11 wireless networks and give a framework to study this kind of applications. A multiplayer game traffic model is produced using Quake 4 as an example. By introducing IEEE 802.11 MAC model, we show how the performance changes as the number of players increases including throughout, delay, jitter and Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Several different network scenarios then are considered. The issue of bottleneck effect at the AP is identified and a solution by using 802.11 parameters (TXOP) is given. Validation is made in our testbed and the technique used in this paper could be applied to improve the performance of other real-time applications over 802.11-like networks.

Keywords: IEEE 802.11; multiplayer games; bottlenecks; QoS; TXOP; multicast; WLANs; wireless LANs; computer games; gaming; wireless networks; traffic modelling; quality of service; capacity optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMC.2010.036833

International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication, 2010 Vol.4 No.4, pp.302 - 323

Published online: 11 Nov 2010 *

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