A distributed architecture for multiplayer interactive applications on theInternet

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of: MiMaz e, a distributed multiplayer game on the Internet, and, more precisely, it describes the design of dedicated transmission control mechanisms. MiMaze i s implemented on a completely distributed communication architecture based on the IP multicast protocol suite (RTP/UDP/IP). This is the first work to analyze a distributed interactive name on the multicast Internet. The major element of the MiMaze architecture is a distributed synchronization mechan ism that guarantees the consistency of the game regardless of network delay . This article provides an evaluation of the MiMaze game on the MBone, and discusses approaches to monitor and evaluate this new type of application. The main contribution of this work is to show, based on an example, the fea sibility of this new family of applications on ct best-effort network. It i s shown that real-time interactivity can be maintained, provided that some level of inconsistency can be tolerated by the application, This work also highlights the role of multicast as an enabling technology for a real-time Internet.