Virtual worlds, real traffic : interaction and adaptation
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Date
2010Metadata
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Abstract
Metaverses such as Second Life (SL) are a relatively new type of Internet application. Their functionality is similar to online 3D games but differs in that users are able to construct the environment their avatars inhabit and are not constrained by predefined goals. From the network perspective metaverses are similar to games in that timeliness is important but differ in that their traffic is much less regular and requires more bandwidth This paper contributes to our understanding of metaverse traffic by validating previous studies and offering new insights. In particular we analyse the relationships between application functionality, SL's traffic control system and the wider network environment. Two sets of studies have been carried out: one of the traffic generated by a hands-on workshop which used SL; and a follow up set of controlled experiments to clarify some of the findings from the first study. The interplay between network latency, SL's traffic throttle settings, avatar density, and the errors in the client's estimation of avatar positions are demonstrated. These insights are of particular interest to those designing traffic management schemes for metaverses and help explain some of the oddities in the current user experience.
Citation
Oliver , I A , Miller , A H D & Allison , C 2010 , Virtual worlds, real traffic : interaction and adaptation . in W Feng & K Mayer-Patel (eds) , MMSys '10 : Proceedings of the first annual ACM SIGMM conference on Multimedia Systems . ACM , pp. 305-316 . https://doi.org/10.1145/1730836.1730873
Publication
MMSys '10
Type
Conference item
Rights
© ACM, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in MMSys '10 Proceedings, available from http://dl.acm.org
Description
Proceeding MMSys '10 Proceedings of the first annual ACM SIGMM conference on Multimedia systemsItems in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.