Assigning a player to a machine

• US 10,296,391 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Justice, John Raymond, Lalor, Dave, Gordon, Stefan Keir, Boehm, Joshua, Butler, Stephen John
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Assistant Examiner(s): McBeth, William C
• Application Number:
  US14/319,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20150375113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/502 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for optimizing allocation of client devices, such as gaming devices, to different available data centers and servers, such as gaming servers, within a data center. The allocation maintains a satisfactory user experience while balancing costs and resource usage. Embodiments of the invention match a client to a data center and server based on a set of criteria related to the client device, user of the client device, game or application the user desires to play, available data centers for supporting the client device, and conditions of the network between the client device and data center. An allocation algorithm may be used to determine resource-efficient allocation. In one embodiment, a bidding process is employed wherein a client and data center are matched based on bids received from data centers. In one embodiment, allocation is periodically evaluated to determine if reassignment to another data center is needed.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method of assigning a client device to a data center, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of criteria related to a user, a game, or a client device;

receiving a second set of criteria related to a plurality of data centers;

based on the first and second sets of criteria, determining a score for each of the data centers in the plurality of data centers, thereby forming a set of scores for the plurality of data centers, the set of scores corresponding to the client device, wherein the score for a respective data center represents a quality of a given user experience for a particular client device matched to the respective data center, and wherein the score for the respective data center is based on criteria including at least user-provided feedback from previous sessions with the respective data center;

providing a ranked listing of scores to rank each of the data centers based on the set of scores corresponding to the client device; and

based on the ranked listing of the scores to rank each of the data centers, assigning the client device to a first data center.

2. The media of claim 1, further comprising assigning the client device to a first server in the first data center.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the client device is assigned to the data center having a best score.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein a score for each of the data centers corresponds to a cost for each data center of operating the client device for a session.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the first set of criteria includes at least one criterion of the group comprising:

the user'"'"'s subscription level, average session time for the user, geographic location of the client device, network conditions associated with the client device, title of a game the user desires to play, minimum bandwidth requirements for the game, and maximum latency or minimum fps tolerated by the game; and

wherein the second set of criteria includes at least one criterion of the group comprising;

temperature and cooling distribution, power or energy usage, cost of energy, power distribution, server utilization, content distribution, geographic location of the data center, scheduled maintenance downtime, capacity, available gaming content, projected cost for operating a user, and average quality of user experience associated with the data center.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein an allocation algorithm is used to determine the scores, and further comprising:

monitoring a session initiated by the client device and the first data center after the client device is assigned to the first data center;

receiving data based on the monitored session; and

updating the allocation algorithm based on the received data.

7. The media of claim 5, wherein the average quality of user experience is determined from feedback provided by past users of each data center.

8. The media of claim 6, wherein the second set of criteria includes historical, current, and projected levels of criteria.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning the client device to a first server in the first data center.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is assigned to the data center having a best score.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a score for each of the data centers corresponds to a cost for each data center of operating the client device for a session.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of criteria includes at least one criterion of the group comprising:

the user'"'"'s subscription level, average session time for the user, geographic location of the client device, network conditions associated with the client device, title of a game the user desires to play, minimum bandwidth requirements for the game, and maximum latency or minimum fps tolerated by the game; and

wherein the second set of criteria includes at least one criterion of the group comprising;

temperature and cooling distribution, power or energy usage, cost of energy, power distribution, server utilization, content distribution, geographic location of the data center, scheduled maintenance downtime, capacity, available gaming content, projected cost for operating a user, and average quality of user experience associated with the data center.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein an allocation algorithm is used to determine the scores, and further comprising:

monitoring a session initiated by the client device and the first data center after the client device is assigned to the first data center;

receiving data based on the monitored session; and

updating the allocation algorithm based on the received data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the average quality of user experience is determined from feedback provided by past users of each data center.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the second set of criteria includes historical, current, and projected levels of criteria.

9. A method of assigning a client device to a data center, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of criteria related to a user, a game, or a client device;

receiving a second set of criteria related to a plurality of data centers;

based on the first and second sets of criteria, determining a score for each of the data centers in the plurality of data centers, thereby forming a set of scores for the plurality of data centers, the set of scores corresponding to the client device, wherein the score for a respective data center represents a quality of a given user experience for a particular client device matched to the respective data center, and wherein the score for the respective data center is based on criteria including at least user-provided feedback from previous sessions with the respective data center;

providing a ranked listing of scores to rank each of the data centers based on the set of scores corresponding to the client device; and

based on the ranked listing of the scores to rank each of the data centers, assigning the client device to a first data center.

17. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method of assigning a gaming client device to a data center, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of criteria related to a user, a game, or the gaming client device;

receiving a second set of criteria related to a plurality of data centers;

based on the first and second sets of criteria, determining a score for each of the data centers in the plurality of data centers, thereby forming a set of scores for the plurality of data centers, the set of scores corresponding to the gaming client device, wherein the score for a respective data center represents a quality of a given user experience for a particular gaming client device matched to the respective data center, and wherein the score for the respective data center is based on criteria including at least user-provided feedback from previous sessions with the respective data center;

providing a ranked listing of scores to rank each of the data centers based on the set of scores corresponding to the gaming client device; and

based on the ranked listing of the scores to rank each of the data centers, assigning the gaming client device to a first data center.

18. The media of claim 17, further comprising assigning the gaming client device to a first server in the first data center.

19. The media of claim 17, wherein the gaming client device is assigned to the data center having a best score.

20. The media of claim 17, wherein a score for each of the data centers corresponds to a cost for each data center of operating the gaming client device for a session.