Dynamic Game Instance Management for Fluctuating Demand
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing online gaming systems face challenges in dynamically managing game instances to meet fluctuating demand, leading to inefficiencies and potential bottlenecks in resource allocation, which can degrade overall application performance.
Innovation Solution
A system that monitors and forecasts demand for game instances, dynamically managing standby and active instances by adjusting the number of game sessions based on demand, location, and historical usage, ensuring optimal resource allocation and minimizing delays for players.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the number of game instances is increased to meet fluctuating demand, then player availability and service quality are improved, but resource allocation efficiency and system performance degrade due to bottlenecks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic management of game instances by continuously monitoring demand metrics (player count, session duration, queue depth) and adjusting the number of active and standby instances in real-time. This allows the system to adapt resource allocation to fluctuating demand patterns, maintaining high availability while avoiding permanent over-provisioning that would degrade efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes operational parameters (number of active instances, standby instance count, instance lifecycle timing) based on monitored demand conditions. By dynamically adjusting these parameters rather than maintaining fixed values, the system resolves the contradiction between ensuring availability and maintaining resource efficiency.
2Speed
If standby game instances are pre-configured to reduce player wait time, then service speed is improved, but system resource utilization and performance degrade due to excessive resource consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a standby instance mechanism where only a partial number of instances are pre-configured and maintained in standby state, rather than provisioning excessive resources. The standby count is dynamically adjusted based on demand metrics, ensuring enough instances are available to reduce player wait time while avoiding the resource waste that would occur with over-provisioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary configuration of standby game instances in advance, pre-loading game assets and initializing instance states so they can be rapidly activated when players join. This preliminary action reduces the time required to start new game sessions without requiring permanent over-provisioning of resources, as standby instances are created and maintained based on actual demand patterns.
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention monitor and dynamically manage game instances within a game service. A game service provides a remote gaming environment to which users connect over a wide area network, such as the Internet. For example, embodiments of the invention may forecast demand for a specific game title. The demand forecast is used to determine how many standby game instances are needed to meet demand as players join and leave game sessions. Games with higher demand may have more standby game instances ready for players to drop in. Games with less demand may have fewer active game instances running waiting for players to drop in.