Abstract

A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) often requires a game publisher to deploy dozens or hundreds of n-tiered servers to support millions of concurrent players around the world. Planning such a massive network infrastructure, particularly in an environment where uncertain demand and limited server capacity could cause congestions in a host site and the network, poses a great challenge. A slow response time stemming from an ill-designed infrastructure could render an otherwise technically superior MMOG noncompetitive in the marketplace. In this study, we focus on three critical issues related to establishing an MMOG server infrastructure: selecting host facilities on a broadband provider’s backbone network nodes, assigning client clusters represented by the Point of Presences (PoPs) to these MMOG facilities, and determining the required capacity for each host site. The problem is first formulated as a non-linear integer program based on an M/M/1 queuing system in each host facility. We then develop an exact solution approach obtained from solving a minimum cost set-covering problem. The efficiency of the solution approach is also reported.

Share

COinS