On the performance of OnLive thin client games
On the performance of OnLive thin client games
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DOI：
10.1007/s00530-014-0362-4
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发表时间：
2014-10
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Mark Claypool;D. Finkel;Alexander Grant;Michael Solano
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Mark Claypool;D. Finkel;Alexander Grant;Michael Solano
电脑游戏可以从“云”技术中获益，因为它可以在服务器上进行大量的图形密集型计算，只向瘦客户端发送视觉游戏帧，而客户端只向服务器发送玩家的上游动作。然而，电脑游戏往往画面密集，用户动作节奏快，需要比特率和更新频率，这可能会给终端主机网络带来压力。了解瘦客户机游戏的流量特征对于构建流量模型和流量分类器以及充分规划网络基础设施以满足未来需求非常重要。虽然已经有很多关于在线游戏流量和流媒体视频流量的详细研究，但本文首次详细研究了OnLive的网络特性，这是一款可商用的瘦客户端游戏系统。精心设计的实验测量了几种游戏类型的OnLive游戏流量，分析了上游和下游游戏流量的比特率，数据包大小和数据包间时间，并分析了游戏的帧速率。结果表明，OnLive快速向下游发送大数据包，与直播视频相似，但仍有明显不同。在上游，OnLive较少发送较小的数据包，这与上游传统游戏客户端流量明显不同。OnLive只支持高容量的终端主机连接时的最高帧率，但在中等容量的终端主机连接时提供良好的帧率。结果应该是一个有用的开始，可以构建有效的流量模型和流量分类器，并准备终端主机网络来支持即将到来的一代计算机游戏。
Computer games stand to benefit from “cloud” technology by doing heavy-weight, graphics-intensive computations at the server, sending only the visual game frames down to a thin client, with the client sending only the player actions upstream to the server. However, computer games tend to be graphically intense with fast-paced user actions necessitating bitrates and update frequencies that may stress end-host networks. Understanding the traffic characteristics of thin client games is important for building traffic models and traffic classifiers, as well as adequately planning network infrastructures to meet future demand. While there have been numerous studies detailing online game traffic and streaming video traffic, this paper provides the first detailed study of the network characteristic of OnLive, a commercially available thin client game system. Carefully designed experiments measure OnLive game traffic for several game genres, analyzing the bitrates, packet sizes and inter-packet times for both upstream and downstream game traffic, and analyzing frame rates for the games. Results indicate OnLive rapidly sends large packets downstream, similar but still significantly different than live video. Upstream, OnLive less frequently sends much smaller packets, significantly different than upstream traditional game client traffic. OnLive supports only the top frame rates with high-capacity end-host connections, but provides good frame rates with moderate end-host connections. The results should be a useful beginning to building effective traffic models and traffic classifiers and for preparing end-host networks to support this upcoming generation of computer games.