Monitoring and tailoring the usage of network resources for smoothing the provision of interactive 3D services

The performance of next-generation interactive 3D networked applications and services depends upon the availability and proper usage of network resources. In this work we have designed and implemented a flexible and reliable mechanism for extracting quantitative information related to the availability of network resources in order to enhance the provision of distributed and resource-demanding 3D applications. Individually weighted metrics have been combined towards composite overlay node selection criteria. We have made the pragmatic assumption of minimal or no collaboration with the networking elements, relying on an end to end scenario. The network - based information is coupled with application dynamics, used for topology enhancement.