A New Dynamic Load Balancing Algorithm for Multi-ROIA

Real-time Online Interactive Application (ROIA) is an emerging class of large-scale distributed application which can support millions of concurrent users around the world. Due to the dynamic changes in the number of concurrent users as well as the uncertainty of user operations, the dynamic load balancing is a key issue for ROIA. However, most of previous works are dedicated to the load balancing in a single ROIA without considering the variety of different type ROIAs. We take the advantage of differences between ROIAs and propose a new load balancing algorithm for multi-ROIA to improve the scalability of ROIA and increase the resource utilization of system. This paper firstly describes the motivation of the new load balancing algorithm, then presents the dynamic load balancing algorithm for multi-ROIA. Finally, the simulation results are also presented to show the efficiency and feasibility of the new algorithm

Elastic Highly Available Cloud Computing

High availability and elasticity are two the cloud computing services technical features. Elasticity is a key feature of cloud computing where provisioning of resources is closely tied to the runtime demand. High availability assure that cloud applications are resilient to failures. Existing cloud solutions focus on providing both features at the level of the virtual resource through virtual machines by managing their restart, addition, and removal as needed. These existing solutions map applications to a specific design, which is not suitable for many applications especially virtualized telecommunication applications that are required to meet carrier grade standards. Carrier grade applications typically rely on the underlying platform to manage their availability by monitoring heartbeats, executing recoveries, and attempting repairs to bring the system back to normal. Migrating such applications to the cloud can be particularly challenging, especially if the elasticity policies target the application only, without considering the underlying platform contributing to its high availability (HA). In this thesis, a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) framework is introduced; the challenges and requirements of its use in mobile networks are discussed. In particular, an architecture for NFV framework entities in the virtual environment is proposed. In order to reduce signaling traffic congestion and achieve better performance, a criterion to bundle multiple functions of virtualized evolved packet-core in a single physical device or a group of adjacent devices is proposed. The analysis shows that the proposed grouping can reduce the network control traffic by 70 percent. Moreover, a comprehensive framework for the elasticity of highly available applications that considers the elastic deployment of the platform and the HA placement of the application’s components is proposed. The approach is applied to an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) application and demonstrate how, within a matter of seconds, the IMS application can be scaled up while maintaining its HA status

Scalable Resource and QoS Brokering Mechanisms for Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Multiplayer online games have become an increasingly integral part of online entertainment. With advances in social media, the number of players of these games is increasing at a very rapid rate, which in some cases has been observed to be exponential. This is when resource becomes a concern. In this thesis, I investigated several challenges in developing and maintaining multiplayer games such as hotspots, genrespeci c limitations, unpredictable quality of service and rigidity in resource availability. I showed that these issues can be solved by adopting mechanisms for separation of resource concerns from functional concerns and coordination of resources. To support resource coordination, I divided the ownership of resources among three partiesgame owner, resource owner and game player. I developed the CyberOrgs-MMOG API, which supports Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) platforms capable of resource sharing among multiple peers, through mechanisms for acquiring these resources dynamically. I showed that dynamic acquisition of resources can solve the resource questions mentioned above. The API was evaluated using a 2D game with up to 250 simulated players. I also showed, how the game's responsiveness can be dynamically adjusted in a scalable way. This thesis presents the design and implementation of the CyberOrgs-MMOG API, interfaces provided to the interacting agents representing di erent parties. I integrated a 2D multiplayer game with the API and evaluated the mechanisms supported by the API

A Systematic Mapping Study of MMOG Backend Architectures

The advent of utility computing has revolutionized almost every sector of traditional software development. Especially commercial cloud computing services, pioneered by the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have provided an unprecedented opportunity for the fast and sustainable development of complex distributed systems. Nevertheless, existing models and tools aim primarily for systems where resource usage—by humans and bots alike—is logically and physically quite disperse resulting in a low likelihood of conflicting resource access. However, a number of resource-intensive applications, such as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and large-scale simulations introduce a requirement for a very large common state with many actors accessing it simultaneously and thus a high likelihood of conflicting resource access. This paper presents a systematic mapping study of the state-of-the-art in software technology aiming explicitly to support the development of MMOGs, a class of large-scale, resource-intensive software systems.By examining the main focus of a diverse set of related publications, we identify a list of criteria that are important for MMOG development. Then, we categorize the selected studies based on the inferred criteria in order to compare their approach, unveil the challenges faced in each of them and reveal research trends that might be present. Finally we attempt to identify research directions which appear promising for enabling the use of standardized technology for this class of systems

Athlos: A Framework for Developing Scalable MMOG Backends on Commodity Clouds

The development of resource-intensive, distributed, real-time applications like Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) backends entails a variety of challenges, some of which have been extensively studied. Despite some advancements, the development and deployment of MMOG backends on commodity clouds and high-level computing layers continues to face several obstacles, including a non-standardized development methodology, lack of provisions for scalability, and the need for abstractions and tools to support the development process. In this paper, we describe a set of models, methods, and tools for developing scalable MMOG backends and hosting them on commodity cloud platforms. We present Athlos, a framework that allows game developers to leverage our methodology to rapidly prototype MMOG backends that can run on any type of cloud environment. We evaluate this framework by conducting simulations based on several case-study MMOGs to benchmark its performance and scalability, and compare the development effort needed, and quality of the code produced with other approaches. We find that MMOGs developed using this framework: (a) can support a very high number of simultaneous players under a given latency threshold, (b) elastically scale both in terms of runtime and state, and (c) significantly reduce the amount of effort required to develop them. Coupled with the advantages of high-level computing layers such as Platform, Backend, and Function-as-a-Service, we argue that our framework accelerates the development of high-performance, scalable MMOGs, that leverage the resources of commodity cloud platforms