A fault tolerance procedure for P2P online games

There is a need to analyze the stability problem of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) online games in depth considering the frequency and scope of player departure and the variation of players usual behavior, e.g. actions, at runtime. An overlay multicast network also known as Application Layer Multicast (ALM) tree, used for intra-zone communication in P2P MMOGs, with a low impact on node departure is preferred which is an open research area to explore. This paper extends cluster concept that brings stability in overlays and devises a fault tolerance solution to handle the problem of routing game states. The presented approach can not only provide fault tolerance to the overlay network but also preserve required end-to-end distance in terms of hops which is an important factor for interactive applications like online game.