Bipartite electronic SLA as a business framework to support cross-organization load management of real-time online applications

Online applications such as games and e-learning applications fall within the broader category of real-time online interactive applications (ROIA), a new class of ‘killer’ application for the Grid that is being investigated in the edutain@grid project. The two case studies in edutain@grid are an online game and an e-learning training application. We present a novel Grid-based business framework that makes use of bipartite service level agreements (SLAs) and dynamic invoice models to model complex business relationships in a massively scalable and flexible way. We support cross-organization load management at the business level, through zone migration. For evaluation we look at existing and extended value chains, the quality of service (QoS) metrics measured and the dynamic invoice models that support this work. We examine the causal links from customer quality of experience (QoE) and service provider quality of business (QoBiz) through to measured quality of service. Finally we discuss a shared reward business ecosystem and suggest how extended service level agreements and invoice models can support this

The Effects of Latency, Bandwidth, and Packet Loss on Cloud-Based Gaming Services

Network bandwidth increases make cloud-based gaming a promising alternative to traditional gaming. Network latency presents a challenge cloud-based gaming services must overcome to provide a comparable experience to traditional gaming. Measuring the effects of latency on quality of experience and player performance can help understand the capabilities of cloud-based gaming services. We conduct a cloud-based gaming user study, surveying user’s quality of experience and measuring their in-game performance and the services’ network characteristics. Analysis of results show a significant decrease in quality of experience and player performance as latency increases, but latency has little effect on the frame rate or average throughput of cloud-based gaming services

Latency Thresholds for Usability in Games: A Survey

User interactions in interactive applications are time critical operations;late response will degrade the experience. Sensitivity to delay doeshowever vary greatly with between games. This paper surveys existingliterature on the specifics of this limitation. We find a classificationwhere games are grouped with others of roughly the same requirements.In addition we find some numbers on how long latency is acceptable.These numbers are however inconsistent between studies, indicatinginconsistent methodology or insufficient classification of games andinteractions. To improve classification, we suggest some changes.In general, research is too sparse to draw any strong or statisticallysignificant conclusions. In some of the most time critical games, latencyseems to degrade the experience at about 50 ms

Network Latency and Cloud Games: A Study Using GamingAnywhere

Thin client gaming services (services that utilize a cloud gaming model) allow consumers with low-end computers to play high-end video games. Thin client gaming services run the game in the cloud, receive input from the user, and send the visuals of the game to the user’s computer. The performance of thin client games is linked the quality of the user’s Internet connection, in which a common bottleneck is network latency. We performed a study to analyze the relationship between network latency, performance, and quality of experience (QoE) of thin client games. We introduced artificial latency between a server and client. Participants of our study performed worse and had a lower QoE as the latency increased, with a sharp decline in performance and QoE at an intermediate latency

Effects of Local Latency on Games

Video games are a major type of entertainment for millions of people, and feature a wide variety genres. Many genres of video games require quick reactions, and in these games it is critical for player performance and player experience that the game is responsive. One of the major contributing factors that can make games less responsive is local latency — the total delay between input and a resulting change to the screen. Local latency is produced by a combination of delays from input devices, software processing, and displays. Due to latency, game companies spend considerable time and money play-testing their games to ensure the game is both responsive and that the in-game difficulty is reasonable. Past studies have made it clear that local latency negatively affects both player performance and experience, but there is still little knowledge about local latency’s exact effects on games. In this thesis, we address this problem by providing game designers with more knowledge about local latency’s effects. First, we performed a study to examine latency’s effects on performance and experience for popular pointing input devices used with games. Our results show significant differences between devices based on the task and the amount of latency. We then provide design guidelines based on our findings. Second, we performed a study to understand latency’s effects on ‘atoms’ of interaction in games. The study varied both latency and game speed, and found game speed to affect a task’s sensitivity to latency. Third, we used our findings to build a model to help designers quickly identify latency-sensitive game atoms, thus saving time during play-testing. We built and validated a model that predicts errors rates in a game atom based on latency and game speed. Our work helps game designers by providing new insight into latency’s varied effects and by modelling and predicting those effect

Qualitative Evaluation of Latency and Packet Loss in a Cloud-based Games

On-demand multimedia services are more popularthan ever and continue to grow. Consumers can now streammusic, movies, television, and video games at the push of abutton. Such services typically require a minimum connectionspeed to support streaming. However, transient network effectssuch as packet loss and delay variation can play a crucial role indetermining the user quality of experience (QoE) in streamingmultimedia systems. This paper will seek to establish thesubjective impact of negative network effects on the userexperience of a popular cloud-based on-demand video gameservice