Assigning A Player To A Machine

• US 20150375113A1
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Justice, John Raymond, Gordon, Stefan Keir, Boehm, Joshua, Lalor, Dave, Butler, Stephen John
• Granted Patent: US 10,296,391 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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; and

based on the set of scores, 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 the 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 6, wherein the average quality of user experience is determined from feedback provided by past users of the each data center.

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

9. 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:

providing a first set of criteria to a plurality of data centers, the first set of criteria including at least one of an indication of a game, information about a client device, and information about a user associated with the client device;

in response to providing the first set of criteria, receiving a bid from each data center of the plurality of data centers, wherein each bid is determined based on a second set of criteria related to the data center; and

based on the received bids, assigning the client device to a first data center.

10. The media of claim 9 further comprising assigning the client device to a first server in the first data center.

11. The media of claim 9, wherein the client device is assigned to the data center having the lowest bid.

12. The media of claim 9, wherein each bid corresponds to a cost for each data center of operating the client device for a session.

13. The media of claim 9, wherein each bid is received by the client device, and the client device initiates a gaming session with the first data center.

14. The media of claim 9, 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.

15. The media of claim 9, 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.

16. 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;

based on the scores, assigning the client device to a first data center;

determining that a transfer is needed for the first data center;

receiving a third set of criteria related to a subset of the plurality of data centers;

based on the first and third sets of criteria, determining a second score for each of the data centers in the subset of data centers;

determining a transfer time for transferring the client device from the first data center; and

reassigning the client device to a second data center at the transfer time, based on the second score of the second data center.

17. The media of claim 16, wherein the third set of criteria includes updated values of at least a portion of criteria in the second set of criteria.

18. The media of claim 16, wherein determining a transfer is needed for the first data center comprises receiving an indication from the first data center that a transfer is needed.

19. The media of claim 16, wherein determining a transfer time comprises determining a window of time wherein transferring the client device from the first data center to the second data center minimizes disruption of a game being played by the user.

20. The media of claim 16, wherein the third 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.