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An empirical evaluation of TCP performance in online games

Published: 14 June 2006 Publication History

Abstract

A fundamental design question to ask in the development of a network game is---Which transport protocol should be used---TCP, UDP, or some other protocols? Seeking an objective answer to the choice of communication protocol for MMORPGs, we assess whether TCP, a popular choice, is suitable for MMORPGs based on empirical evidence. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first evaluation of transport protocol performance using real-life game traces.We analyze a 1, 356-million-packet trace from ShenZhou Online, a TCP-based, commercial, mid-sized MMORPG. Our analysis indicates that TCP is unwieldy and inappropriate for MMORPGs. This is due to four distinctive characteristics of MMORPG traffic: 1) tiny packets, 2) low packet rate, 3) application-limited traffic generation, and 4) bidirectional traffic. We show that because TCP was originally designed for unidirectional and network-limited bulk data transfers, it cannot adapt well to MMORPG traffic. In particular, the window-based congestion control and the fast retransmit algorithm for loss recovery are ineffective. Furthermore, TCP is overkill, as not every game packet needs to be transmitted in a reliably and orderly manner. We also show that the degraded network performance did impact users' willingness to continue a game. Finally, we discuss guidelines in designing transport protocols for online games.

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  • (2022)An Introduction to Online Video Game QoS and QoE Influencing FactorsIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials10.1109/COMST.2022.317725124:3(1894-1925)Online publication date: Nov-2023
  • (2016)On the effectiveness of an optimization method for the traffic of TCP-based multiplayer online gamesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-015-3001-y75:24(17333-17374)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2016
  • (2016)QoE and Latency Issues in Networked GamesHandbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies10.1007/978-981-4560-50-4_23(509-544)Online publication date: 10-Aug-2016
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cover image ACM Conferences
ACE '06: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology
June 2006
572 pages
ISBN:1595933808
DOI:10.1145/1178823
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 14 June 2006

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Author Tags

  1. MMOG
  2. internet measurement
  3. network games
  4. performance analysis
  5. transport protocols

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Cited By

View all
  • (2022)An Introduction to Online Video Game QoS and QoE Influencing FactorsIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials10.1109/COMST.2022.317725124:3(1894-1925)Online publication date: Nov-2023
  • (2016)On the effectiveness of an optimization method for the traffic of TCP-based multiplayer online gamesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-015-3001-y75:24(17333-17374)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2016
  • (2016)QoE and Latency Issues in Networked GamesHandbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies10.1007/978-981-4560-50-4_23(509-544)Online publication date: 10-Aug-2016
  • (2015)Does Playing Online Mobile Games Overcharge You for the Fun?Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Mobile Gaming10.1145/2751496.2751499(13-18)Online publication date: 19-May-2015
  • (2015)Toward Consistency of State in MMOGs Through Semantically Aware Contention ManagementIEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing10.1109/TETC.2014.23316823:2(275-288)Online publication date: Jun-2015
  • (2015)Playing High-End Video Games in the Cloud: A Measurement StudyIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology10.1109/TCSVT.2014.236441925:12(2013-2025)Online publication date: Dec-2015
  • (2015)QoE and Latency Issues in Networked GamesHandbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies10.1007/978-981-4560-52-8_23-1(1-36)Online publication date: 22-Aug-2015
  • (2015)Measurement and analysis of online gaming services on mobile WiMAX networksWireless Communications & Mobile Computing10.1002/wcm.241215:7(1198-1211)Online publication date: 1-May-2015
  • (2014)Analyzing the effect of TCP and server population on massively multiplayer gamesInternational Journal of Computer Games Technology10.1155/2014/6024032014(2-2)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2014
  • (2013)Does Online Mobile Gaming Overcharge You for The Fun?Proceedings of Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games10.5555/2664633.2664646(1-2)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2013
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