Decentralized scale-free network construction and load balancing in Massive Multiuser Virtual Environments

Immersive and interactive Massive Multiuser Virtual Environments currently attract a lot of attention. Going beyond the hype, one discovers interesting concepts and opportunities for a supposed future Web which is commonly called the 3D Web. The global provision of such a vision is much more than just another evolutionary step in content visualization, rather severe technical challenges need to be addressed by the future Internet infrastructure and protocols. Existing commercial approaches feature only limited scalability due to mostly relying on centralized solutions. With global-scale scenarios like a 3D Web in mind, the application of distributed and decentralized techniques becomes indispensable. In [12] we have introduced the concept of a scale-free and self-organized overlay network for the interconnection of machines that build the backbone of a global-scale online environment. This paper presents a detailed analysis and evaluation of this overlay network based on simulation results. The paper shows the feasibility of the concept for self-organized and decentralized load balancing in highly dynamic environments like virtual online worlds. Moreover the scale-freedom of the network's link structure is shown, which makes it usable for the intended global-scale scenario.