A network-centric approach to enhancing the interactivity of large-scale distributed virtual environments

• Published in: Computer communications 2006-11, Vol.29 (17), p.3553-3566
• Main Authors: Ta, Duong Nguyen Binh, Zhou, Suiping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Client assignment; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Distributed Virtual Environments; Exact sciences and technology; Geographically distributed server architecture; Interactivity enhancement; Server placement; Software
• ISSN: 0140-3664; 1873-703X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.comcom.2006.05.015

In Distributed Virtual Environments (DVEs), where many simultaneous human users interact with each other in a shared, 3D virtual world, enhancing interactivity is of crucial importance, since the success of a DVE greatly depends on users’ perceptions. In general, enhancing interactivity for large-scale DVEs with thousands of geographically distributed users faces various challenges such as large Internet latencies, high resource demands and high potential of security threats. In this paper, we propose a network-centric approach to enhance the interactivity of DVEs by directly minimizing the network latencies in client–server communications. We consider two key problems: the server placement problem and the client assignment problem. We have formulated these two problems and proved that they are both NP-hard. We then adapt and develop several degree-based server placement approaches and greedy client assignment algorithms. Extensive simulation studies using realistic models have shown that our approach is very effective in enhancing the interactivity of large-scale DVEs.