Quality of Service for Multiplayer Game Provisioning in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are self-organised wireless multi-hop networks comprising various heterogeneous mobile devices that are independent of any existing networking infrastructure and can be set up spontaneously. Due to device mobility the network topology may vary frequently. Additionally, new nodes may emerge and join the ad hoc network whereas existing nodes may vanish at any time. In order to send packets from a source node all along the way passing several intermediate nodes to a destination node a routing protocol is needed that takes device mobility and wireless network conditions into account. Multiplayer Computer Games enjoy great popularity and with the advent of powerful mobile devices people would like to play games using their mobile devices. Since computer games, in particular real-time games have strict demands on the network, quality of service (QoS) has to be provided to cope with unreliable network connections, low bandwidth, high latency and limited device resources.

Starting with a collection of networking requirements of common multiplayer games, typical game scenarios should be modelled in the network simulator NS-2 including mobility and communication patterns. Afterwards, these scenarios should be simulated employing standard ad hoc routing protocols as well as enhanced protocols providing for quality of service. This also includes the modification of existing or implementation of new QoS routing protocols. The results of the simulations should be evaluated against the requirements mentioned before. The routing protocols that achieve the best average performance should be implemented in Linux and evaluated in a test environment. A concurrent NS-2 / Linux implementation is preferred if possible. Finally, an interface between the routing protocol and the SIRAMON framework should be specified and implemented to enable SIRAMON using QoS routing and accessing essential networking parameters.

• Von Dirk Budke bereitgestellte Informationen zur Arbeit