Pigeon: a framework for testing peer-to-peer massively multiplayer online games over heterogeneous network

Abstract

How to support massively multiplayer online games (MMGs) on the internet has been a hotspot in the industry and research field. With consideration to the scalability and low cost, the peer-to-peer (P2P) system has been expected to support MMGs. The premise of most of the existing P2P-based Communication Models (PCMs) for MMGs is that the network environment is homogeneous. However, we believe that the network's heterogeneity has a significant impact on the latency in network communication. Here, we present a physical-level simulator for PCM, named Pigeon. It is portable for different P2P protocols, communication models and RPG applications. The Pigeon aims to provide a general platform to test the performance of various PCMs on a heterogeneous network. The preliminary experiments on the Pigeon show some valuable results. Index Terms—MMGs, Peer-to-Peer, Heterogeneity, Latency, Physical-level