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A Scalable QoS-enabled Business Grid Environment for Multi-User Real-time Online Interactive Applications

Opis projektu


Advanced Grid Technologies, Systems and Services
Speed breakthrough for online gamers and e-learning
<p><b>The limitations of current technology can ruin the experience for those playing sophisticated online games or taking complex e-learning courses. But what if players could harness the power of multiple computers online to create a really impressive gaming or learning experience? A revolutionary application of grid technology to computer games and e-learning offers just such a prospect. </b></p><p>No matter how much you pay to get the latest, fastest computer on the market, technology leaps ahead even further. The computer or the internet connection you have just upgraded to play high-performance online games is fine for a couple of months.</p><p>Then a new groundbreaking game is introduced and your system just cannot cope anymore. It either slows down, or keeps freezing &ndash; ruining the whole experience.</p><h3>More computing power for you!</h3><p>Online games can involve high levels of interaction between many users, with very fast information updates being passed from one computer to another over the internet. The faster the computer's reaction, the more intense the experience is for the users. However, current technology puts strict limitations on the number of users, and reaction time can sometimes be unsatisfactory.</p><p>Overcoming such limitations requires much more powerful computer systems, web servers and connections. The Edutain@GRID project team believes grid technology could provide another solution.</p><h3>How will grid technology help?</h3><p>Grid technology combines the power of many computers, which may be widely scattered over different organisations or locations. These computers are connected through a network, known as the &lsquo;grid&rsquo;, and work together as a single computing system. The grid allows a user to draw on the free processing power of any available computer on the network to perform complex tasks. </p><p>Only major academic networks (such as the one created for researchers working on the Human Genome Project) and large multinational industries currently use this technology.</p><p>The project team believes they can harness the grid concept to provide real-time reactions for both complex interactive games and online training software. They are developing the middleware (computer software that connects diverse software together) that would allow current grid technology to be used for such tasks. This middleware would automatically manage the network, enabling more users to participate online than is possible using current technology.</p><h3>What still needs to be done?</h3><p>However, further research is still required to achieve the project's goals. Grid technology needs to be adapted for program developers and &lsquo;average&rsquo; end-users to make it more user-friendly.</p><p>Grid accessibility is currently constrained by security models that are too slow for online real-time interactions among multiple users. Edutain@GRID&rsquo;s researchers are investigating more flexible approaches to this issue. The capability of increasing or decreasing the number of users with little technical intervention (scalability) on the grid will also need to be improved.</p><h3>More fun means&hellip;expanding markets</h3><p>The project&rsquo;s work is due to end in August 2009. Despite the work that remains to be done, the project&rsquo;s team has been encouraged by the progress they have achieved so far. Since 2006, Edutain@GRID's research partners have been working together across five countries to bring the benefits of grid technology to you.</p><p>Online gamers and e-learners could soon benefit by experiencing the excitement of real-time affordable action, and entertainment involving hundreds, even thousands of other users. The potential for the computer games market and for producers of interactive educational modules is enormous. </p>

Edutain@Grid is an exciting and ground breaking new project making use of Grid technology. The project will identify and define a new class of applications that are highly significant for Grid computing but have not been studied in the past, which we characterise as Real-Time Online Interactive Applications (ROIA). The distinctive features that make ROIA unique include large user concurrency to a single application instance, ad-hoc connections, competition-oriented Virtual Organisations, real-time interactive response, dynamically changing control and data application flows whilst maintaining high Quality of Service (QoS), user friendly security, and novel Business-to-Consumer market models. In order to overcome these challenges, the project team will develop a new middleware layer that will allow ROIA to exploit Grid computing and validate the system using two pilot applications from online gaming and e-learning domains. Edutain@Grid is expected to be of key interest to game developers and publishing companies by tackling some current key industry challenges: larger user concurrency and high QoS ranging between 64 - 128 players for fast action online games to thousand of players in persistent Massively Multi-user Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG); standard API and scalable networks for cheaper integration and online game hosting. Similarly the benefits to the e-learning community are expected to be significant where large numbers of geographically disparate students can interact with instructors making use of large operational data sets. In particular this will be relevant to online simulations in scientific modelling applications used in the energy, defence, transport and legal market sectors. Furthermore Edutain@Grid is expected to attract new developers and development ideas that were not previously possible or simply cost prohibitive.

Dziedzina nauki

Program(-y)

Temat(-y)

Zaproszenie do składania wniosków

FP6-2005-IST-5
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System finansowania

STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project

Koordynator

UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK
Wkład UE
€ 595 031,00
Adres
INNRAIN 52
6020 Innsbruck
Austria

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Region
Westösterreich Tirol Innsbruck
Rodzaj działalności
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Linki
Koszt całkowity
Brak danych

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Ostatnia aktualizacja: 1 Kwietnia 2017

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/034601/pl

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