We are long past the days where games were defined by titles such as Pong, Space Invaders, and Pac Man running on arcade machines the size of a refrigerator. The games of today provide a far richer experience in terms of graphics and intricacy. In addition, the computational power now packed into smart phones have enabled complex games to be run on a mobile platform you can hold in your hand.
The emergence of online multiplayer played a major role in the growth in popularity and culture within video games. As such, mobile game developers have sought out the creation of mobile online multiplayer games hoping to capitalize on their popularity. This has appeared to be a great success, with mobile multiplayer games being some of the top grossing games on most app markets. Further app development here seems inevitable, and this begs the question: How well can the existing 4G network support these games?
To answer this question, we plan to analyze the performance and reliability of mobile online multiplayer games on a 4G network. This will grant insight into what gamers currently experience on mobile games. This will also help provide a benchmark of mobile gaming to compare to for further development of mobile communications network, with the ongoing development of 5G attempting to improve all of the shortcomings of 4G [1].
[1]M. Krishna and J. Lloret Mauri, Advances in mobile computing and communications, 1st ed. Springer, pp. 2-4.
[2]J. Saldana and M. Suznjevic, "QoE and Latency Issues in Networked Games," Springer, Singapore, 2015.
[3] M. Gerla, D. Maggiorini, C. E. Palazzi and A. Bujari, "A survey on interactive games over mobile networks," Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 212-229, 2013.
[4]B. Rong, X. Qiu, M. Kadoch, S. Sun and W. Li, 5G heterogeneous networks, 1st ed. Springer.
[5]J. Saldana and M. Suznjevic, "Online Games:Traffic Characterization and Network Support," in IEEE consumer communications & networking conference, Las Vegas, 2014
Sihota, Ryan - rsihota@sfu.ca
Nichol, Andrew - amnichol@sfu.ca
Liu, Jason - jkl37@sfu.ca