Kernel mechanisms for turning a 3D MMOG from single into multi-server architecture
by Mei-Ling Chiang; Ching-Chung Tseng; Yen-Chu Chang; Shu-Chun Chao; Han Wang
International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking (IJHPCN), Vol. 10, No. 4/5, 2017

Abstract: A game designed with single-server architecture cannot serve a large number of players at the same time. To increase the service capacity, one needs either to upgrade the server with more powerful equipment or to redesign the game software to enable multi-server processing. Instead of modifying the game software, we experiment on using operating system mechanisms to effectively support 3D massively multiplayer online games in server clusters. The game connection handoff mechanism is implemented for transparently migrating a client's live game connection between servers. Besides, a load distribution policy treats a virtual world as a set of regions and distributes players on them to servers. It adjusts the range of regions for servers when some servers are added into or removed from the cluster. Experiments with a real 3D game show that under some constraints, the original single-server game is turned into one with server cluster architecture. The system capacity is increased.

Online publication date: Tue, 12-Sep-2017

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking (IJHPCN):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com