Network Aware Traffic Adaptation for Cloud Games

Abstract

Current cloud gaming systems have very strong requirements in terms of network resources. For pervasive gaming in various environments like at home, hotels, internet cafes, or area with limited or unstable network access, it is beneficial to avoid the necessity of having a costly steady fast speed internet connection to be able to run these cloud games. We present a network aware adaptation technique based on the level of detail (LoD) approach in 3D graphics. It maintains a bidirectional multi-level quality of service for game entities at runtime, lessening the game's communication cost when it notices a decrease in network resources and maintains an optimal communication frequency otherwise. It therefore reduces the impact of poor and unstable network parameters (delay, packet loss, jitter) on game interactivity while improving user's quality of experience (QoE). The evaluation of our approach through a pilot experiment shows that the proposed technique provides a significant QoE enhancement.