Integration of P2P and Clouds to Support Massively Multiuser Virtual Environments

Massively Multiuser Virtual Environments (MMVEs) are attracting millions of players from all over the world. Currently used Client/Server infrastructures and technologies are reaching their limits of flexibility and scalability. In this paper we propose an approach that combines the paradigms of P2P networks and of Cloud computing, in order to exploit the respective technological advantages. Our proposal is based on combining several P2P techniques to allow key-value distributed stores to meet the MMVE needs of elasticity and scalability. We propose adopting Virtual Nodes, providing separate overlays for interest and object management, and defining a specific role in the overlays for Cloud-based, trusted resources, as a set of techniques to provide run-time resizing and load balancing features of the MMVE platform, and to enable distributing the MMVE simulation load among user and cloud resources.