A cross-layer design to improve quality of service in online multiplayer wireless gaming networks

In this paper, we propose an adaptive forward error correction (FEC) and rate control technique to improve service quality in a wireless gaming environment. In particular, we concentrate on a centralized server gaming architecture (our results can be extended to peer-to-peer architectures as well), where wireless users can also connect to the gaming service. Our models are well-suited for last-hop wireless link users, but can also guarantee service improvement for other wireless scenarios through small modifications. It is assumed that the game server and clients (mobile devices) can switch between different prediction levels having different data rates. We introduce a new scheme for estimating the packet loss rates due to congestion and wireless channel conditions and use this information in a cross-layer design to improve the overall service quality. The congestion packet loss probability is used to devise a simple TCP-friendly rate control algorithm for sending downlink data packets from the game server. We also propose a novel adaptive FEC and dynamic packetization algorithm to alleviate the effects of wireless channel packet losses based on this chosen data rate. The simulation results show the efficacy of our scheme in achieving higher throughput