Deploying a massively multiplayer online game with a low-latency server infrastructure

Abstract

The massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) industry has become an important e-commerce segment due to its impact on the economy. A MMOG requires the deployment of dozens to hundreds of n-tiered servers around the world to support millions of concurrent players. A slow response time stemming from an illdesigned network infrastructure could render the game noncompetitive in the marketplace. This study proposes a mixed integer program aimed at identifying nodes on a broadband provider's backbone network for hosting a MMOG so that the game distributor's revenue is maximized while meeting the throughput, the latency, and the budget requirements. A heuristic for solving the model is presented with an experiment to measure its solution quality and speed.