Abstract
A key factor determining the success of a Distributed Interactive Application (DIA) is the maintenance of a consistent shared virtual world. To help maintain consistency, a number of Information Management techniques have been developed. However, unless carefully tuned to the underlying network, they can negatively impact on consistency. This work presents a novel adaptive algorithm for optimizing consistency by maximizing available bandwidth usage in DIAs. This algorithm operates by estimating bandwidth from trends in network latency, and modifying data transmission rates to match the estimated value. Results presented within demonstrate that this approach can help optimise consistency levels in a DIA.
- Aboobaker, N., Chanady, D., Gerla, M., and Sanadidi, M. Y. 2002. Streaming media congestion control using bandwidth estimation. In Proceedings of the 5th IFIPI/IEEE Internatioml Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services: Management of Multimedia on the Internet. 89--100. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Balan, R., Ebling, M., Castro, P., and Misra, A. 2005. Matrix: Adaptive middleware for distributed multiplayer games. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Middleware Conference (Middleware). 390--401. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Bansal, D., Balakrishnan, H., Floyd, S., and Shenker, S. 2001. Dynamic behavior of slowly-responsive congestion contro! algorithms. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOOM Conference on Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communications. 253--274. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Beigbeder, T., Coughlan, R., Lusher, C., Plunkett, J., Agu, E., and Claypool, M. 2004. The effects of loss and latency on user performance in Unreal Tournament 2003. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM Workshops on Network and System Support for Games (NetGames'04). 144--151. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Bernier, Y. 2001. Latency compensating methods in client/server in-game protocol design and optimization. In Proceedings of the Game Developers Conference.Google Scholar
- Cai, W., Lee, F., and Chen, L. 1999. An auto-adaptive dead reckoning algorithm for distributed interactive simulation. In Proceedings of the 13th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation. 82--89. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Chen, L. 2005. An adaptive consistency maintenance appproach for replicated continuous applications. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS'05). 795--801. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Cheng, L. and Marsic, I. 2001. Bandwidth Measurement in XDSL networks. In Proceedings of the Joint 4th IEEE International Conference on ATM (ICATM '01) and High Speed Intelligent Internet Symposium. 222--226.Google Scholar
- Claypool, M. and Claypool, K. 2006. Latency and player actions in online games. Comm. ACM, 49, 11, 40--45. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Claypool, M., Lapoint, D., and Winslow, J. 2003. Network analysis of Counter-Strike and Starcraft. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Performance, Computing and Communications Conference. 261--268.Google Scholar
- Das, T., Singh, G., Mitchell, A., Kumar, P., and McGee, K. 1997. Neteffect: A network architecture for large-scale multi-user virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology.ṡ 157--163. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Delaney, D., Ward, T., and S. McLoone, S. 2006a. On consistency and network latency in distributed interactive applications: A survey - Part I. Presence: Teleop. Virt. Environ. 15, 2, 218--234. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Delaney, D., Ward, T., and S. McLoone, S. 2006b. On consistency and network latency in distributed interactive applications: A survey - Part II. Presence: Teleop. Virt. Environ. 15, 4, 465--482. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Dourish, P. 1995. The parting of the ways: Divergence, data management and collaborative work. In Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. 213--229. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Dube, P., Liu, Z., Sahu, S., and Silber, J. 2005. Last mile problem in overlay design. In Proceedings of the IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference. 920--925.Google Scholar
- Feng, W., Chang, F., and Walpole, J. 2002. Provisioning on-line games: A traffic analysis of a busy Counter-Strike server. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Internet Measurement. 151--156. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Floyd, S., Handley, M., Padhye, J., and Widmer, J. 2000. Equation-based congestion control for unicast applications. In Proceedings of the Conference on Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communication. 43--56. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Frecon, E. and Stenius, M. 1998. Dive: A scaleable network architecture for distributed virtual environments. Dist. Syst. Engin. J. 5, 3, 91--100.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Funkhouser, T. 1995. Ring: A client-server system for multi-user virtual environments. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics. 85--92. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Goel, A., Krasic, C., and Walpole, J. 2008. Low latency adaptive streaming over TCP. Trans. Multimedia Comput. Commun. Appl., 4, 3. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- IEEE. 1995. IEEE standard for distributed interactive simulation - application protocols. IEEE Standard 1278.1-1995:Google Scholar
- Jain, M. and Dovrolis, C. 2002. Pathload: A measurement tool for end-to-end available bandwidth. In Proceedings of the Passive and Active Measurements (PAM) Workshop. 14--25.Google Scholar
- Jehaes, T., De Vleeschauwer, D., Coppens, T., Van Doorselaer, B., Deckers, E., Naudts, W., Spruyt, K., and Smets, R. 2003. Access network delay in networked games. In Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Network and System Support for Games. 63--71. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Krasic, C., Li, K., and Walpole, J. 2001. The case for streaming multimedia with Tcp. In Proceedings of 8th International Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems. 213--218. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kravets, R., Calvert, K., and Schwan, K. 1998. Payoff-based communication adaptation based on network service availability. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems. 33--42. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Lang, T., Branch, P., and Armitage, G. 2004. A synthetic traffic model for Quake3. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. 233--238. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Lee, K. and Lee, D. 2003. A scalable dynamic load distribution scheme for multi-server distributed virtual environment systems with highly-skewed user distribution. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology. 160--168. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Leith, D. J., Heffner, J., Shorten, R. N., and McCullagh, G. D. 2007. Delay based AIMD congestion control. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Protocols for Fast Long Distance Networks (PFLDNet '07). 73--78.Google Scholar
- Liebeherr, J., Fidler, M., and Valaee, S. 2007. A min-plus system interpretation of bandwidth estimation. In Proceedings of 26th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM '07). 1127--1135.Google Scholar
- Lu, F., Parkin, S., and Morgan, G. 2006. Load Balancing for massively multiplayer online games. In Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Network and System Support for Games. 1--11. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Macedonia, M. R. and Zyda, M. J. 1997. A taxonomy for networked virtual environments. IEEE Multimedia 4, 1,48--56. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Marshall, D., McLoone, S., Roberts, D., Delaney, D., and Ward, T. 2006a. Exploring the effect of curvature on the consistency of dead reckoned paths for different error threshold metrics. In Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real-Time Applications (DSRT'06). 77--84. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Marshall, D., McLoone, S., Ward, T., and Delaney, D. 2006b. Does reducing packet transmission rates help to improve consistency in distributed interactive applications? In Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Educational & Serious Games. 88--92.Google Scholar
- Marshall, D., Mooney, B., McLoone, S., and Ward, T. 2007. An unobtrusive method for tracking network latency in online games. In Proceedings of the China Ireland International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies. 54--61.Google Scholar
- McCoy, A., Ward, T., McLoone, S., and Delaney, D. 2007. Multistep-ahead neural-network predictors for network traffic reduction in distributed interactive applications. ACM Trans. Model. Comput. Simul. 17, 4. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- McGovern, P., Murphy, S., and Murphy, L. 2006. Protection against link adaptation for VoWLAN. In Proceedings of the 15th IST Mobile an Wireless Communications Summit.Google Scholar
- Mukherjee, B. and Brecht, T. 2000. Time-lined TCP for the TCP-friendly delivery of streaming media. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Network Protocols. 165--176. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Nichols, J. and Claypool, M. 2004. The effects of latency on Online Madden NFL Football. In Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV '04). 146--151. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Palazzi, C., Ferretti, S., Cacciaguerra, S., and Roccetti, M. 2005. A RIO-like technique for interactivity loss-avoidance in fast-paced multiplayer online games. Comput. in Entertain. 3, 2, 3--3. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Prasad, R., Dovrolis, C., Murray, M., and Claffy, K. 2003. Bandwidth estimation: Metrics, measurement techniques, and tools. IEEE Netw. 17, 6, 27--35. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Rejaie, R., Handley, M., and Estrin, D. 1999. RAP: An end-to-end rate-based congestion control mechanism for realtime streams in the internet. In Proceedings of the 18th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. 1337--1345.Google Scholar
- Ribeiro, V., Riedi, R., Baraniuk, R., Navratil, J., and Cottrell, L. 2003. Pathchirp: Efficient available bandwidth estimation for network paths. In Proceedings of the Passive and Active Measurements (PAM) Workshop.Google Scholar
- Roehle, B. 1997. Channeling the data flood. IEEE Spectrum 34, 3, 32--38. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Singhal, S. and Zyda, M. 1999. Networked Virtual Environments: Design and Implementation. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Trefftz, H., Marsic, I. and Zyda, M. 2003. Handling heterogeneity in networked virtual environments. Presence: Teleop. Virt. Environ. 12, 1, 37--51. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Vaghi, I., Greenhalgh, C., and Benford, S. 1999. Coping with Inconsistency due to network delays in collaborative virtual environments. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology. 42--49. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Widmer, J., Denda, R., and Mauve, M. 2001. A survey on TCP-friendly congestion control. IEEE Netw. 15, 3, 28--37. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Xue, L., Orgun, M., and Zhang, K. 2002. A user-centred consistency model in real-time collaborative editing systems. In Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop onDistributed Communities on the Web. 135--154. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Yasui, T., Ishibashi, Y., and Ikedo, T. 2005. Influences of network latency and packet loss on consistency in networked racing games. In Proceedings of 4th ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Network and System Support for Games. 1--8. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Yu, Y., Li, Z., Shi, L., Chen, Y., and Xu, H. 2007. Network-aware state update for large scale mobile games. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks. 563--56.Google Scholar
- Zhang, X., Gracanin, D. and Duncan, T. 2004. Evaluation of a pre-reckoning algorithm for distributer virtual environments. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed System. 445--452. Google Scholar
Digital Library
Index Terms
Optimizing consistency by maximizing bandwidth usage in distributed interactive applications
Recommendations
Consistent Unanticipated Adaptation for Context-Dependent Applications
COP '16: Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Workshop on Context-Oriented ProgrammingUnanticipated adaptation allows context-dependent applications to overcome the limitation of foreseen adaptation by incorporating previously unknown behavior. Introducing this concept in language-based approaches leads to inconsistencies as an object ...
Consistency in Non-Transactional Distributed Storage Systems
Over the years, different meanings have been associated with the word consistency in the distributed systems community. While in the ’80s “consistency” typically meant strong consistency, later defined also as linearizability, in recent years, with the ...
Consistency Issues in Distributed Checkpoints
A global checkpoint is a set of local checkpoints, one per process. The traditional consistency criterion for global checkpoints states that a global checkpoint is consistent if it does not include messages received and not sent. This paper investigates ...






Comments