Game on the network environment Problem analysis, game Cloud series two

If the calculations that are needed to run the game, storage, network, manpower and so on are all regarded as the resources, that network is absolutely the game operation Core resources, because obtains the computation or the storage resource the cost is low, the way is also many, but the network resources, especially the high quality network resources are very rare, especially in the domestic, Due to the policy and the restrictions of the Operators network, the domestic high-quality network resources are not everywhere. Compared with the traditional Internet applications, such as Web Access, delay or temporary interruption is not too much relationship, reload can be. But for online games, especially real-time online games are not the same, dozens of milliseconds delay the player is likely to be the opponent's head, a second interruption, the top equipment was robbed by others. Network quality, especially speed, not only determines the player in the game of life and death, more likely to determine the fate of a game, because the network greatly affect the user experience.

I still remember a few years ago when playing online games, a lot of game before login to choose the first clothes: Netcom, telecom or dual-line clothing. The cause of this phenomenon is due to historical policy constraints, the interconnection between different operators is not only costly, but also slow, cross-operator network quality is extremely unstable. So many games in order to have a better user experience and cost savings, according to the operator network server, this does guarantee speed, but the problem comes, we play games are often with friends to play together, small partners at home network but each operator has, imagine you in and small partners to make a copy of the time, See boss to hang, the result you card, cause regiment out, besides helpless you can say anything.

So that a game into the network is also a failure network is not exaggerated, many games, do not need too strong CPU, do not need too much memory, I/O requirements are not high, but the network quality must be good, as long as online games, whether real-time or round system, network quality is the first element. Since the network is so important to the game, let's talk about the network in the cloud era and what was different in the past. Previously, game hardware and network management were in two forms: have the strength, since the building of the computer room, pull line, but this very little, not only to have the qualification, but also have a strong financial strength, in addition to individual high handsome company has the strength to do, most companies are not realistic. So the other most common is the IDC hosting method, most companies are used in this way.

First talk about speed, now the IDC most of the two lines (telecommunications, unicom), the speed of many times also with the size of the IDC relationship, the large point of IDC due to sufficient bandwidth resources, network is good, and small and medium-sized IDC due to the cost and scale of the reasons, is often a certain operator access speed is very good, The other is passable. But only two lines or not enough, there are other networks, such as education network, there are many IDC is called BGP Network, in fact, the real reliable BGP network is very small, and very expensive. By the way, here's a brief introduction to the BGP:BGP (Border Gateway Kyoto, Boundary Gateway Protocol) is a routing protocol used to connect to independent systems on the Internet. BGP is mainly used to interconnect the Internet as (autonomous system), the most important function of BGP is to control the transmission of Routing and select the best route. Netcom, China Telecom, China Railcom and some large private IDC operators have the as number, the country's major network operators are mostly through BGP protocol and its own as number to achieve multiple-line interconnection. With this scenario, IDC needs to be in CNNIC (China Internet Information Center) or APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Center) and as as number, and then through the BGP protocol to broadcast this IP address to other network operators ' networks. Using BGP protocol interconnection, all backbone routing devices of network operators will judge the best route of IP segment of IDC room to ensure the high-speed access of different network operators. From this introduction can be seen, to achieve the BGP network is also a high threshold, and even if the implementation of the BGP network, export bandwidth and stability is also a need for greater input to ensure that. However, because of the application of the specific and extensive user groups, without considering the cost of the situation BGP network is preferred.

When it comes to cost, the big head of IDC's hosting fee is network cost, if it is a single line, will be much cheaper, and the two-wire is a lot more expensive, if the bandwidth and speed requirements, the cost will be high, if the BGP network, the cost of bandwidth is even greater, many of the cost of IDC hosting is based on bandwidth, Other costs can even be directly included in the bandwidth costs, so it is conceivable that you may work hard for a year, and finally found that most of the money spent on bandwidth.

Again, the management, IDC due to their strength and management level of the gap, network or computer room stability is uneven, a little less each year, and bad Zooey broken nets, failure, even power failure of standby power failure this happens often. There are more bizarre, a company in the IDC-hosted machine one day suddenly not connected, finally found the reason, because the sweeping aunt accidentally put the cabinet power cord kicked off. This is not the responsibility of the aunt, but the data center management and operational norms of the lack of standards. Unfortunately, too many domestic data centers are really still stay in the computer room level, just put the machine room, management is not standardized, not to mention information security, and so on, often because of the same machine room other people's machines were attacked, leading the entire IDC export network paralysis.

Finally say flexibility, IDC room bandwidth many times in advance to talk about good prices and discounts, generally are six months or a year, you want to arbitrarily increase or decrease the bandwidth is not so convenient. In today's mobile internet era, the number of users of online games is often very sudden, if not flexible control of bandwidth, it will be difficult to ensure a good user experience. Of course you can configure the bandwidth in the peak traffic, but the cost increases will be significant.

So in the cloud era, these traditional IDC hosted by the network problems will be different? If a cloud service provider tells you that his network has a dual-line or something, that's pretty basic. Because in the cloud era, BGP network is standard, since the cloud, means that users may come from all over the country or around the world, if there is no perfect network conditions, cloud services is just empty talk. Another advantage of BGP network is that it is very convenient to use, you no longer have to configure multiple IP for the same server to connect the unused carrier network, only one IP can guarantee all network connectivity. Of course, the requirements for cloud service providers are very high to meet these conditions, first of all, cloud service providers must be large enough, because the scale is likely to get high-quality network resources, to ensure bandwidth quality, followed by a strong technical strength, must have a very strong technical and operational team to manage thousands of physical machines cluster , the light is not enough, its data center must also be in the main major cities in China, to ensure that the national coverage, and a better point of the best overseas nodes, such as Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and so on. Now many of the domestic game companies have rushed out of China, to Asia, so a good cloud service provider must also have a certain number of overseas data nodes. And the cost, formal due to the cloud service provider's scale effect, it is possible to coordinate the domestic operators, at a lower cost to get high-quality network resources, so the cost is lower. Today many cloud service providers have very attractive bandwidth prices.

Of course, the most important thing is elasticity, you don't have to judge how much traffic and bandwidth you need after the game is online, and the fact is that you are hard to predict in the mobile internet age. Since it is difficult to predict, there is no need to predict, in the cloud, bandwidth is just a random allocation of resources. Because of the flexibility of bandwidth tuning, you can increase bandwidth when needed and reduce bandwidth when you don't need it. For example, during the campaign, the temporary increase in bandwidth, or in the daily copy of the 7-9 points between the temporary increase in bandwidth, the rest of the time to reduce bandwidth. This will not only ensure the peak period of the network quality, so that users at any time feel very quickly, more importantly, on demand, according to the use of the amount of money spent on the blade.

When it comes to management, it is believed that the cloud service providers will make their computer room management specifications and requirements, as well as SLAs announced and signed in the contract. Management can only be said to be different because of the company, because the management needs not only the process, the specification, but also needs the technical strength, especially once has operated the large-scale IDC experience, this can build the formidable and the stable service.

Original Author: Architecture Cloud Shoke article from: http://game.aliyun.com forwarding please indicate the source