Inter-player Delay Optimization in Multiplayer Cloud Gaming

Novel cloud computing technology makes multiplayer cloud gaming a reality, where players play games that do not run on local devices, but on servers in the cloud. Nevertheless, the necessary communication between player's local device and cloud server increases the response delay of the gaming session. Besides the degrade of responsiveness, the inter-player delay, which is the difference of response delays perceived by players who are interacting with each other, can significantly affect the fairness of the multiplayer game. In this paper, we first introduce the Inter-player Delay Optimization (IDO) problem that aims at minimizing this inter-player delay, while preserving good-enough absolute response delay experienced by players. We further propose an efficient heuristic algorithm to solve the IDO problem. The evaluation result of a comprehensive simulation using a large-scale real-world data trace shows that IDO can reduce up to about 30% of maximum inter-player delay among interacting players comparing with the other existing solution.

I. Introduction

As a novel application of cloud computing technology, cloud gaming has become an attractive online gaming service. An increasing number of service providers have been involved in this new generation of gaming paradigm, such as SONY PlayStation Now, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Ubitus GameNow, etc. Unlike traditional online games, the cloud-based game does not run on player's local device, but on the remote server in the cloud Data Centers (DCs). The remote server operates the game logic and streams the game scene back to player's client through the Internet, so that the client can continuously show the game scene to the player, just like the game is running by the client. Cloud gaming enables players to play arbitrary high-quality games with less powerful devices. With recent technology evolutions and service promotions carried out by major players in the industry, cloud gaming is expected to undergo a series of dramatic upgrades in the near future [1].