Network infrastructure for massively distributed games

Abstract

The popularity of hypertext documents led to the need for specific network infrastructure elements such as HTML caches, URL-based switches, web-server farms, and as a result created several new industries as companies rushed to fill that need. We contend that massive distributed games will have a similar impact on the Internet and will require similar dedicated support. This paper outlines some initial work on prototyping such support. Our approach is to combine highlevel game specific logic and low-level network awareness in a single network-based computation platform that we call a booster box.