Virtualized infrastructure for video game applications in cloud environments

Abstract

Mobile video games are fast-growing and fast-evolving. Cloud computing's paradigm can bring several benefits to mobile video games, like cost reduction through an efficient usage of resources, or an easier and faster on-demand deployment of new applications. This paper focuses on the architecture aspects of mobile cloud-based video gaming and proposes a new service oriented and virtualized paradigm. The idea is to provide reusable game engines sub modules like the rendering or physics engines as cloud computing services. We call these sub modules substrates. Offered by different substrates providers as services, they can be dynamically discovered, used and composed. There are several motivations for substrates virtualization, including the rapid introduction of new video game applications and cost efficiency through resource sharing. This paper also describes the implementation of a prototype and the measurements performed to validate some aspects of our paradigm. As a preliminary validation of this solution, we analyze the effects of different parameters like virtualization or inner latency on the QoS. The performance analysis shows that the overhead introduced by substrate virtualization is acceptable, and reveals how the low-latency connectivity between substrates that compose a video game application and the limitation of the amount of these substrates are crucial to achieve a satisfactory level of QoS.