DynFilter: Limiting bandwidth of online games using adaptive pub/sub message filtering

Multiplayer online games can generate a lot of server-related outgoing bandwidth, due to many factors such as highly variable amounts of players or the gathering of many players towards the same in-game locations. Predicting the exact amount of required bandwidth to support varying conditions can be costly, and players can experience game-wide failures if bandwidth is insufficiently provisioned. We present DynFilter, a game-oriented message processing middleware designed to adaptively filter state update messages for in-game entities located apart, in order to reduce bandwidth needs and stay within predefined quotas. We ran experiments on Amazon EC2 over a prototype game mimicking a FPS and a MMOG. Our results show that DynFilter is properly able to maintain bandwidth use within the pre-established quotas while still maintaining adequate delivery of relevant state update messages.