Analysis and Optimization of Server Architectures
Applied to a Massive Multiplayer Online Game
Abstract
With the numbers of players of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) constantly increasing, it becomes more and more challenging to ensure a fluent gameplay. Server clusters of these MMOGs necessarily need to be able to scale to high numbers of concurrent players. As the free-to-play market is an ever-evolving environment, server topologies furthermore need to be maintainable regarding newly arising requirements.
This work proposes a scalable inter-server communication system for server clusters of MMOGs. The system implements various network patterns using the ZeroMQ networking library. It provides a simple API for different server roles that enables them to communicate to each other. To achieve scalability, it is implemented without having a central message broker that otherwise potentially poses a bottleneck. Finally, a configurable simulation is implemented that evaluates the performance of the system.
The thesis is developed in cooperation with the browser game developer and publisher Bigpoint GmbH and uses the MMOG Drakensang Online as a case study. The game's current state is analyzed to derive requirements for the communication system.
Keywords: Game Server Architecture, Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Network Topologies, Game Client Simulation, ZeroMQ
Files
This work proposes a scalable inter-server communication system for server clusters of MMOGs. The system implements various network patterns using the ZeroMQ networking library. It provides a simple API for different server roles that enables them to communicate to each other. To achieve scalability, it is implemented without having a central message broker that otherwise potentially poses a bottleneck. Finally, a configurable simulation is implemented that evaluates the performance of the system.
The thesis is developed in cooperation with the browser game developer and publisher Bigpoint GmbH and uses the MMOG Drakensang Online as a case study. The game's current state is analyzed to derive requirements for the communication system.
Keywords: Game Server Architecture, Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Network Topologies, Game Client Simulation, ZeroMQ
Files
BibTex
@MASTERSTHESIS{,
author = {Tobias Müller},
title = {Analysis and Optimization of Server Architectures Applied to a Massive Multiplayer Online Game},
school = {HTW Berlin},
year = {2014},
url = {http://www.tobiasmuller.de/thesis.html}
}
