Latency server and matchmaker

Details Latency server and matchmaker Latency server and matchmaker

2000-03-13

2001-10-16

Meky, Moustara M. (Department: 2153)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer network managing

Reexamination Certificate

active

06304902

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention generally relates to multi-user distributed electronic digital computer systems, and more particularly relates to computer based game network systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, advances in computer technology have fueled an explosive growth in digital electronic games. The latest digital electronic games combine three dimensional (3D) graphics with special effects sounds to make playing the games a realistic experience for the players. Advances in computer technology have also allowed the proliferation of inter-networks notably the Internet.
Given the amount of information on the Internet as well as the speed and costs of using the Internet, it is not surprising that the Internet is widely used as a research tool as well as for general business purposes such as advertising and commercial transactions. Another use of the Internet that is currently gaining popularity is digital electronic game playing.
In using the Internet for digital electronic game playing, players from distant geographical locations, who have computers equipped for digital electronic game playing, can share in a single game. Because of the populace that are connected to the Internet, the pool of able and willing players for a game is greatly increased. On the other hand, the very vastness of the Internet makes performing such a search a significant challenge. More importantly, the poor quality of the data communications links between the computers of the players can cause undesirable effects such as lagging wherein the response time of a player is slow due to latency, connection quality, etc. Such communications problems can make players frustrated and can therefore greatly diminish the joy and pleasure of playing a digital electronic game.
Efforts have been made in the Prior Art to overcome some of the above shortcomings. To overcome the difficulty of finding able and willing players for a game, some Prior Art commercial game systems, with the help of a liaison computer, allow players to exchange messages, organize themselves into groups based on their ability level, and schedule games based on the information gathered. In some cases, the liaison computer serves as a game coordinator to get the appropriate players together for a game.
On the other hand, to improve the quality of the communications links between the players' computers, one Prior Art commercial game system requires specially designed modems to establish point-to-point telephone links with low latency between players. This method may be non-optimal because it requires the player to have specially designed modems which significantly narrows the pool of candidate players.
Another Prior Art commercial game system uses servers, computers that are connected to the Internet by permanent links having high bandwidth and low latency, the server computers act as a liaison between the players both before and during game play. Generally, client home computers are connected to the Internet by temporary links (e.g., using the ordinary telephone system). In this commercial game system, a measurement is performed by the player computer executing a software program on the player computer. In general, latency measurement is a measurement of a typical message's transit time between two Internet nodes. Accordingly, a lower latency measurement translates to a higher quality of the link. An assumption here is that if each of the players has a good connection to the server, then the players will have a good connection to each other. If the players determine that the quality of the links is sufficient for the game at hand, the game begins.
In yet another Prior Art, each player (also known as client computer) determines the quality of the communications link to all the servers in terms of latency measurement and/or other criteria such as bandwidth and error rates. The quality measurements are then provided to a predetermined server which is designated as a matchmaker to select a game server to act as the game liaison for the players based on latency measurement and other predetermined criteria. The function of the game server depends on whether the game is a peer-to-peer game or a client-server game, and other factors.
In the Prior Art, having the player computers make quality measurements is an added burden that may slow down the operation speed of the player computers. One reason is that data communication links between player computers and the server/matchmaker are transitory links that typically use the ordinary telephone system for connection to the server/matchmaker. In general, transitory links are slow in transit times, have low modulation rates, have low data throughput rates, are error prone, and are not entirely reliable. As such, each of the player computers needs to perform the quality measurements every time it wants to start a game to ensure of that the quality needed is met. Because it is prudent to perform the quality measurements at regular intervals up until just before game time and because each latency measurement may take several seconds to make, the total amount of overhead required in ensuring the quality of the data communications link may indeed become a significant overhead to make prospective players impatient.
Furthermore, given the error prone and unreliable nature of the transitory links between player computers and servers, it is possible that when the quality measurements results are sent from the player computers to the server/matchmaker, the information may be lost thereby requiring a retransmission and consequent delay. Such inconveniences mentioned above are reasons as to why the Prior Art may be non-optimal.
Thus, a need exists for a more effective and more efficient technique to ensure that the quality of the data communications links employed are well adapted for digital electronic game playing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides an effective and efficient technique to ensure that the quality of the data communications links are well adapted for online application such as digital electronic game playing.
The present invention meets the above need with method to ensure that the quality of data communication links are adequate for using an application program over a communications network that is coupled to a number of server computers. Under the present invention, each of the server computers stores the network addresses of the server computers. Moreover, at least one of the server computers is designated a matchmaker.
In accordance with the present invention, the matchmaker first instructs the server computers to perform communications link quality measurements among the server computers. The results from the communications link quality measurements are then compiled by the matchmaker. Next, in response to a request from at least one of the client computers which are coupled to the communications network for using the application program, the matchmaker determines at least one communications link quality criterion required for using the application program.
Based on the communications link quality criteria and the compiled results of the communications link quality measurements, the matchmaker selects a number of candidate server computers. The matchmaker then instructs the candidate servers selected to perform communications link quality measurements between the candidates selected and the client computers. Subsequently, the results from the communications link quality measurements between the candidates selected and the of client computers are compiled by the matchmaker.
Based on the results compiled, the matchmaker determines whether any of the candidates selected qualifies under the communications link quality criteria for using the application program. If any server qualifies under the communications link quality criteria, the matchmaker selects and notifies qualified servers.
All the features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of its preferred embodiment whos

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Latency server and matchmaker does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Latency server and matchmaker, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Latency server and matchmaker will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2573886