QoS-constrained event communications in distributed virtual environments

Distributed interactive simulation applications require the use of networked virtual environments that represent external systems, and that can perform processing or communications on behalf of objects in the entire environment. We want to develop distributed interactive simulation systems using the object-oriented software approach, and deploy these systems in a large-scale. The systems must satisfy various quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. In this case, the network architecture and the way interactions between remote objects are handled to ensure QoS requirements is of primary interest. This paper presents a scalable network architecture and an interaction model for such systems. The approach is being evaluated with the project Continuum, which is building a platform for distributed virtual environments with a particular focus on networked games.