A fair message exchange framework for distributed multi-player games

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for message delivery in real-time multi-player distributed interactive games that use the client-server model. Based on this framework, we propose message delivery algorithms that remove the unfair advantage that players with smaller message delays from the game server receive over players with large message delays from the server. The framework is very general in the sense that it does not require assumptions of synchronized clocks at the players and servers; neither does it require a mechanism to compute the one-way delay from the players to the server accurately. It also avoids the need for bucket synchronization that leads to messages being delayed by a fixed amount of time at the server. The framework is based on a proxy architecture that is independent of game applications.