Our analysis indicates that TCP is unwieldy and inappropriate for MMORPGs. This is due to four distinctive characteristics of MMORPG traffic: 1) tiny packets, 2) low packet rate, 3) application-limited traffic generation, and 4) bidirectional traffic. We show that because TCP was originally designed for unidirectional and network-limited bulk data transfers, it cannot adapt well to MMORPG traffic. In particular, the window-based congestion control and the fast retransmit algorithm for loss recovery are ineffective. Furthermore, TCP is overkill, as not every game packet needs to be transmitted in a reliably and orderly manner. We also show that the degraded network performance did impact users¡¦ willingness to continue a game. Finally, we discuss guidelines in designing transport protocols for online games.
@INPROCEEDINGS{chen06:tcp,
AUTHOR = {Kuan-Ta Chen and Chun-Ying Huang and Polly Huang and Chin-Laung Lei},
TITLE = {An Empirical Evaluation of {TCP} Performance in Online Games},
BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI ACE'06},
MONTH = {Jun},
YEAR = {2006},
ADDRESS = {Los Angeles, USA},
URL = {http://www.iis.sinica.edu.tw/~cychen/pub/ace06_tcp.html}
}