A packet-level traffic model of Starcraft

Author

Dainotti, Alberto ; Pescape, Antonio ; Ventre, Giorgio

Author_Institution

Napoli Univ., Naples, Italy

fYear

2005

fDate

38554

Firstpage

33

Lastpage

42

Abstract

Starcraft is a popular real time strategy game that uses a peer-to-peer network communication model. In this paper we analyze its traffic and we provide a statistical characterization at packet-level obtained by varying the number of players. We examine the time dynamics between individual packets within a game session as well as the packet sizes. Also, we provide analytical models approximating the empirical distributions found, we study properties of the tails and of the auto-correlation function, and we investigate the presence of self-similarity. The results obtained show how traffic generated by such game has different characteristics from the traffic prevailing on the Internet in past years.

Keywords

computer games; peer-to-peer computing; telecommunication traffic; Starcraft; autocorrelation function; game session; packet size; packet-level traffic model; peer-to-peer network communication model; real time strategy game; self-similarity; statistical characterization; Analytical models; Character generation; Computer industry; Games; IP networks; Internet; Peer to peer computing; Telecommunication traffic; Toy industry; Traffic control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Hot Topics in Peer-to-Peer Systems, 2005. HOT-P2P 2005. Second International Workshop on

Print_ISBN

0-7695-2417-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOT-P2P.2005.4

Filename

1517789