Applying Peer-to-peer Technology In Virtual Worlds
Name
Siim Annuk
Abstract
The purpose of the given thesis is to investigate the usability and effectiveness of peer-to-peer architecture in contrast to traditional client-server architeture when simulating virtual worlds. In addition, we study how peer-to-peer helps to reduce the cost of ownership for the service provider as opposed to the traditional client-server architecture.
A number of experiments were conducted with scientific research project VirtualLife using both peer-to-peer and client-server architectures. The experiments were conducted on a special-purpose cluster computer consisting of multiple virtual nodes. Some experiments were also repeated on a non virtualized environment consisting of physical computers, since it was found that the virtualized environment might have had a negative effect on the performance of the simulation.
Based on the experiment results we conclude that using peer-to-peer architecture when simulating virtual worlds helps to provide a better user experience while reducing the cost of ownership for the service provider. We also confirm that the usage of peer-to-peer architecture might increase the bandwidth load and resource usage for the client participating in the virtual world.
Graduation Thesis language
Estonian
Graduation Thesis type
Bachelor - Computer Science
Supervisor(s)
Dan Bogdanov, Eero Vainikko
Defence year
2012