Server selection with delay constraints for online games

Abstract

Improving latency is the key to a successful online game-playing experience. With the use of multiple servers along with a well-provisioned network it is possible to reduce the latency. Given a network of servers, game clients, and a desired delay bound, we have designed algorithms to determine the subnetwork of servers whose cardinality is minimal. We have considered the cases wherein the subnetwork architecture is a client-server and a peer-to-peer. We have also provided exhaustive empirical evaluations of our algorithms and compared their performance with the optimum. Experimental results show that our polynomial-time algorithms could find good solutions quickly.