Universal Game Server Architecture for Disaster-Tolerant Gaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online gaming systems lack disaster tolerance and data integrity, especially in high-traffic environments, and are vulnerable to malicious intrusions and denial-of-service attacks, making them unsuitable for regulated gaming industries due to their unproven and complex nature.
Innovation Solution
A distributed online gaming system architecture is proposed, featuring geographically dispersed central servers with a trusted transactional cache and load-balancing mechanisms, along with a personality front end that resolves client system peculiarities and a hardware-based random number generator for secure game outcomes, ensuring real-time persistent storage and logging of transactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If Internet server technology is used for online gaming, then system complexity is reduced and implementation is simplified, but data integrity and security cannot be guaranteed
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the server into multiple independent processing units (transaction processing units, random number generation units, logging units) that operate separately but coordinate through standardized interfaces. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall system reliability and data integrity through distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements redundant backup mechanisms where transaction data is immediately replicated to multiple servers upon successful processing. This beforehand cushioning ensures that if one server fails or data is corrupted, other servers contain the same data, guaranteeing data integrity without requiring complex recovery procedures.
2Reliability
If multiple central servers are deployed for disaster tolerance, then service continuity is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple central servers are merged into a unified logical system where all servers share common memory spaces, transaction logs, and processing logic. This merging approach allows disaster tolerance through redundancy while avoiding the complexity of managing completely independent systems, as all servers operate as a coordinated unit with shared state.
Solution Approach 2:
Each central server is designed as a universal unit capable of performing all server functions (transaction processing, random number generation, logging) rather than having specialized roles. This multi-functionality simplifies the overall system architecture by reducing the need for different server types while still providing disaster tolerance through multiple universal servers.
3Reliability
If hardware-based random number generators are used, then security and unpredictability are improved, but system cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
A dedicated random number generation unit acts as an intermediary component that interfaces between the hardware random number generator and the main transaction processing system. This intermediary layer abstracts the hardware complexity from the rest of the system while ensuring secure random number generation, allowing other parts of the system to access random numbers without needing to understand or manage the underlying hardware.
4Reliability
If transaction processing is committed to multiple servers, then data integrity is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing transaction logs and memory buffers on multiple servers before actual transaction processing begins. When a transaction occurs, data is immediately written to these pre-prepared structures on multiple servers in parallel rather than sequentially, significantly reducing the time required to commit transactions while maintaining data integrity across all servers.
Data Source
AI summary
A trusted disaster tolerant system architecture supporting concurrently a number of distributed online gaming operations such as slip-scan lottery, video lottery, fixed odd betting terminals, Internet gaming, and interactive TV. A personality front end resolves the peculiarities of the various client systems before submitting the relevant transactional payload to a trusted transactional cache. A universal game random generator may be used either at the central game server or at each individual gaming machine, thus conferring a significant trust to the entire estate of gaming machines fitted with the game random generator. An auditable trusted log allows to rapidly resolve any dispute. The instant-draw model and the differed-draw model are supported. The system may advantageously be used in casino environments.