ATLAS: a scalable network framework for distributed virtual environments

A distributed virtual environment (DVE) is a software system that allows users on a network to interact with each other by sharing a common view of their states. As users are geographically distributed over large networks like the Internet and the number of users increases, scalability is a key aspect to consider for real-time interaction. Various solutions have been proposed to improve the scalability in DVE systems but they are either focused on only specific aspects or customized to a target application. In this paper, we classify the approaches for improving scalability of DVE into four categories: communication architecture, interest management, concurrency control, and data replication. We then propose a scalable network framework for DVEs, ATLAS. Incorporated with our various scalable schemes, ATLAS meets the scalability of a system as a whole. By providing system developers with a set of APIs as a network infrastructure, ATLAS intends to support various applications The integration experiences of ATLAS with several virtual reality systems ensures the versatility of the proposed solution.

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