A Network Architecture for Large Scale Virtual Environments

Proceedings of the 19th Army Science Conference, Orlando, Florida, June 1994.Accepted/Published Conference Pape

A network software architecture for large scale virtual environments

We present a network software architecture for solving the problem of scaling large distributed simulations. The motivation for our effort is to expand the capability of virtual environments to serve large numbers (more than 1,000) of simultaneous users. The fundamental idea of our approach is to logically partition virtual environments by associating spatial, temporal, and functionally related entity classes with network multicast groups. Furthermore, we exploit the actual characteristics of the real-world large-scale environments that are simulated by focusing or restricting an entity's processing and network resources to its area of interest via a local Area of Interest Manager (AOIM) and a persistent object protocol. We first discuss related work in the area of networked virtual environments and the problems of developing scalable VEs. The dissertation also provides a taxonomy for discussing VEs in terms of communication methods, data, processes, and views. Moreover, we describe the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) efforts and the limits of DIS today. Finally, we present our theory and the results of simulations using the AOIM. We used data from the U.S. Army National Training Center and the Janus combat model to show how the movement rates and densities of thousands of combat systems allows the use of the AOIM by an military entity to limit network traffic and simulation computation, maintain acceptable reliability, and minimize the effects of latency.http://archive.org/details/anetworksoftware1094531461NANAU.S. Army (USA) autho

Internetwork Infrastructure Requirements for Virtual Environments

in White Papers - The Unpredictable Certainty, National Academy Press, pp. 110-122, 1997. Also in the Proceedings of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) Symposium, San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), San Diego, CA, December 13-15, 1995.Accepted/Published Paper (Refereed

A Taxonomy for Networked Environments

We discuss virtual environments in the context of how to distribute network communications, views, data, and processes while emphasizing those aspects critical to scaling environments. Systems that demand strong data consistency, causality, and reliable communications while supporting real-time interaction are not likely to scale very well. Furthermore, geographically dispersed systems require high-speed, multicast communication.DarpaDMSOUSA StricomUSA TRA

Exploiting Reality with Multicast Groups: A Network Architecture for Large Scale Virtual Environments

Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE Virtual Reality Annual Symposium, 11 - 15 March 1995, RTP, North Carolina, pp. 2-10.Accepted/Published Conference Pape

NPSNET: A Multi-Player 3D Virtual Environment Over the Internet

in the Proceedings of the 1995 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, 9 - 12 April 1995, Monterey, California.Accepted/Published Conference Pape

Internetwork infrastructure requirements for virtual environments

Abstract. Virtual environments (VEs) are a broad multidisciplinary research area that includes all aspects of computer science, virtual reality, virtual worlds, teleoperation and telepresence. A variety of network elements are required to scale up virtual environments to arbitrarily large sizes, simultaneously connecting thousands of interacting players and all kinds of information objects. Four key communications components for virtual environments are found within the Internet Protocol (IP) suite: light-weight messages, network pointers, heavy-weight objects and real-time streams. Software and hardware shortfalls and successes for internetworked virtual environments provide specific research conclusions and recommendations. Since large-scale networked are intended to include all possible types of content and interaction, they are expected to enable new classes of interdisciplinary research and sophisticated applications that are particularly suitable for implementation using the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)