JP5618730B2 - Matching server and network game platform system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a matching server and a network game infrastructure system, and in particular, matching that determines a group to which a user who participates in a network game executed in a group belongs is performed so that the network game is executed with low delay. The present invention relates to a server and a network game base system including the matching server.

  As a prior art of the present invention, a network game for matching a plurality of users is applicable. This matching is to determine users who compete against each other in a network game and compete with each other in the game. In one (one type) network game, a plurality of groups are created, and the network game is executed between users belonging to each group. In general, the maximum number of groups is fixed. In conventional matching, a method in which a user himself selects a group, a method in which users are assigned in order from a group in which the number of people has not reached the maximum number, or the like is employed.

  In addition, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is a standardization organization, provides information that ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides to applications such as P2P (peer-to-peer) distribution, thereby improving application quality and We are standardizing a framework that realizes traffic control. The standardization is disclosed in the following Non-Patent Document 1 (IETF ALTO WG [WG: Working Group]).

IETF ALTO WG http://tools.ietf.org/wg/alto/

  In the matching in the conventional network game, the network performance of the user and the compatibility between users (for example, each user's affiliation network) in realizing the network performance are not taken into consideration. As a result, the network performance of the users could not keep up. Moreover, since there was no means for grasping in advance information on the user's network performance, it was difficult to optimize the communication means as a network game according to the user's network performance.

  That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, in a configuration in which the connection configuration of the networks N1, N2, and N3 is N1-N2-N3 and N1 and N3 are connected apart via N2, users U1, N1 belonging to N1 There has been a situation in which a network game involving participation of three users, U2 and a user U3 belonging to N3, is executed under the game server G1 belonging to N1. In this case, for example, simultaneous optimization of communication between G1 and U1 and U2 and communication between G1 and U3 has been difficult. Furthermore, the optimization has been difficult due to performance variations of user terminals (such as PCs or game terminals) of the users U1 to U3.

  For this reason, when a network game is executed by matching according to the prior art, a situation in which a delay becomes large is common. For example, when users in Tokyo and Kyushu communicate, a delay of, for example, 30 to 50 milliseconds can occur in the network portion alone, including propagation delay and queuing delay in the router. Furthermore, when there are users with ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and low-spec PCs, the network delay that can occur as a whole is on the order of several hundred milliseconds. Is expected to be. Further, since these pieces of information are not known, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform an optimum design considering how many milliseconds the delay is as an application.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a matching server and a network game base system that can solve the above-described problems of the prior art and can execute a network game with favorable network performance, in particular, a low delay.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a matching server that performs matching for determining a group to which a user who participates in a network game executed in a group belongs, and divides a network in which the network game is performed into segments. Receiving / holding means for receiving and holding partial network information that is a part of the network information from a network information providing server holding network information including identification information; and participating in the network game; or Matching means for managing matching information including information on each user who is waiting to start a network game and information on a group to which each user belongs, and the matching means intends to participate in the network game Received a matching request from a user If the affiliation segment of the requesting user obtained by referring to the partial network information, and the matching information, to determine the belonging group of the requesting user and notifies to the requesting user based on.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a network game infrastructure system that supports communication in a network game executed between users whose belonging groups are determined by the matching server, the matching server, A communication control server arranged in the segment where a user belonging to the group belongs, and the communication control server supports communication in a network game executed in the group .

  According to the matching server of the present invention, for a user who makes a matching request to participate in a network game, the belonging group is determined based on the belonging segment in the user's network, so that the network distance is within a predetermined range. It is possible to execute a low-latency network game by a group of users who fall within the range.

  Further, according to the network game infrastructure system of the present invention, the communication control server is arranged in the segment to which the user of the group belongs for communication when the network game is executed in the group divided by the matching server. Therefore, a low-latency network game can be executed.

It is a block diagram of the system containing the matching server of this invention. It is a figure which further shows the functional block in the matching server in FIG. (A) The network within the ISP is physically composed of a plurality of segments, (B) a group is created in each segment, and (C) a group based on such a segment is created. It is a figure which illustrates network information in the case of. It is a figure which shows the example of matching information at the time of applying both 2nd Example and 3rd Example. It is a flowchart which shows the process in which matching information is updated. It is a figure explaining arrange | positioning a communication control server for every segment to which each group determined by the matching server belongs. It is a block diagram of the network game base system of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example in which the group of the network game by which network performance is not considered by the matching of a prior art is created.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram including a matching server 1 according to the present invention, and particularly shows a configuration focusing on a response part with a user and a network information providing server 2. The network information providing server 2 holds the network information 2a, and is a part of the network information held by itself in response to the network information request from the matching server 1, and is the part that has received the request. Reply.

  The matching server 1 holds partial network information 1a and matching information 1b updated by the reply. Also, a matching request from a user who is going to start a network game is received, and an optimum group for the requesting user is determined and notified. Further, a notification to end the game is received from the user who ends the network game. The matching server 1 updates the game participation state information of the user in the matching information 1b when receiving any notification of the game start / end from the user.

  Next, the contents of the network information 2a held by the network information providing server 2 will be described. The network information 2a is a general term for information that an ISP generally has, such as user profile information and network domain information. User profile information includes the user's IP address, the user's affiliation area (for fixed line users, the home address affiliation area, for mobile phone users, location information, etc.), contract service (fixed or moving, Bandwidth, etc.) and communication quality record. The network domain information includes information on correspondence between address spaces and networks.

  In order to avoid frequent inquiries to the network information providing server 2, the partial network information 1 a is obtained by the matching server 1 before part of the network information 2 a is generated by the user or first. A part of the acquired network information 2a is left as a cache in preparation for an inquiry from the user next time.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the matching server 1, and the cache is explained and details of various operations of the matching server 1 described later are explained. The matching server 1 receives / holds the partial network information 1a as described above and manages the matching information 1b by reflecting the user notification as described above, and performs the group notification to the user. Means 11.

  In the case of a cache, first, the matching unit 11 receives a matching request from a user, and identifies the user as, for example, the user A by the information of the received packet. Then, the receiving / holding means 10 requests the network information providing server 2 to transmit the network information of the user A as the partial network information 1a (part to be updated). The information is received and the partial network information 1a is updated. Further, the matching means 11 refers to the matching information 1b by referring to the user A information in the updated partial network information 1a, thereby determining the group to which the user belongs and notifying the user A. In the matching information 1b, the user A information Update.

  Thereafter, until a predetermined period elapses, when there is an additional matching request from the user A, the network information providing server 2 is not accessed, and the group is referred to by referring to the information of the user A in the partial network information 1a. Notice. As another embodiment of the cache update timing, the receiving / holding means 10 may automatically perform every predetermined period instead of when the user requests matching after the predetermined period has elapsed as described above. Good.

  In another embodiment, the network information providing server 2 may be accessed every time there is a matching request from a user without using a cache, and partial network information regarding the user may be acquired. In this case, even when the network configuration is frequently changed, the latest network information can be acquired and reflected in the matching.

  Next, the simplest embodiment (first embodiment) to which the present invention is applied will be described. After that, the second and third embodiments applied to the first embodiment will be described. In each of these embodiments, the user is grouped (matched) according to the criteria based on the partial network information 1a and the matching information 1b. It is based on the distinction of whether or not.

[First embodiment]
As shown in FIG. 3A, the network in the ISP is physically composed of a plurality of segments (segments # 1, # 2, # 3,...), And the delay in the segment is small. The delay between them is assumed to be large. That is, the network distance is within a predetermined range between terminals in the same segment, and the network distance exceeds a predetermined range between terminals belonging to different segments. The ISP manages a set of IP address spaces assigned to each segment as prefixes as network information 2a in the network information providing server 2. That is, as shown in FIG. 3A, for example, the prefix 10.0.0.0/24, 10.0.1.0/24,... Is included in the segment # 1, and the prefix 11.0.0.0/24, 11.0. .. Are managed by the network information providing server 2 as having the prefix 12.0.0.0/24, 12.0.1.0/24,... Belong to the segment # 1.

  The user receives an IP address from one of the segments depending on the region to which the user belongs. If the matching server 1 is an embodiment that does not use the cache described above, when the matching unit 11 receives a matching request from the user, the matching / IP address of the user is matched by the receiving / holding unit 10 (the longest known match [ longest match]) is inquired of the network information providing server 2 and the segment ID is received. In the embodiment using a cache, network information 2a relating to the segment and address space as shown in FIG. 3A is received from the network information providing server 2 in advance. The reception for the cache may be only information on a part related to a user accessing the matching server 1 or may be information that can grasp all segments in the ISP.

  As described above, the segment to which the requesting user belongs can be checked by the partial network information 1a of the receiving / holding means 10 in any embodiment where the cache is used. The matching unit 11 investigates the segment to which the requesting user belongs and performs matching so that users with the same segment are grouped. Therefore, as the information of each group, the segment ID is managed in addition to the user list. In the first embodiment, with this mechanism, users in the same segment are automatically matched, and a low-delay communication environment can be realized between users in the group.

  An example of creating a group in the first embodiment is shown in FIG. This is an example in the case of a network configuration as shown in FIG. 6A, in which groups # 1 and # 3 are created for segment # 1, group # 2 is created for segment # 2, and group # 4 is created for segment # 3 Has been. If the game is a game executed by a maximum of four people, the groups # 1 and # 2 have reached the maximum number. Further, since the groups # 3 and # 4 have not reached the maximum number of people, it is possible to add participating users in the group.

  An example of matching information 1b corresponding to the example of FIG. 3B is shown in FIG. The matching information 1b is given in a table format in which group IDs, segment IDs, and user lists of belonging users are arranged in association with each other. The IP address in the segment with segment ID = 1 is an address belonging to the prefixes 10.0.0.0/24, 10.0.1.0/24,... As shown in FIG. Therefore, group 1 (maximum number of users 10.0.0.24, 10.0.1.3, 10.0.1.8, 10.0.0.154) that has reached the maximum number of 4 by users that match the prefix, and group that does not reach the maximum number of 4 3 (belonging user 10.0.0.55, 10.0.1.39) is managed. Similarly, group 2 in the segment with segment ID = 2 (maximum number of users 11.0.0.177, 11.0.1.31, 11.0.0.10, 11.0.0.131 has been reached) and group in the segment with segment ID = 3 4 (belonging to the maximum number of users 12.0.1.143, 12.0.1.79, 12.0.0.8) is managed.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, by performing grouping according to the user's affiliation segment, low delay or delay that can be generated falls within a possible range, that is, the network performance is good or the network performance is predetermined. There is an effect that a group within a range can be determined.

[Second Embodiment]
The speed of the user's access line also affects the communication speed. Focusing on this point, in the second embodiment, in the matching information 1b, the access line information is further added to the user list and segment information in the first embodiment to manage the group.

  For example, a communication environment with a smaller delay can be realized by creating a group only with users of FTTH (Fiber To The Home, optical fiber) lines. If the ISP is operating with separate segments for each access line, this method (for example, if using an FTTH line, create a group with only users on the FTTH line) using the same method as in the first embodiment above. It is possible to realize. This is because the distinction of access lines is included in the distinction of segmentation itself.

  On the other hand, when the access line and the segmentation are not linked, it is necessary to collate with the contract information of the user. Such contract information is also included in the network information 2a of the network information providing server 2 as described above, and is used as the partial network information 1a in the matching server 1. That is, when receiving a matching request from a user, the matching server 1 inquires the network information providing server 2 about the user's access line, and determines a group using the result and the matching information 1b that the matching server 1 has. Further, as described above, instead of inquiring the network information providing server every time, a cache may be used.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, a group with good network performance can be determined when a network game is executed by performing grouping according to the user's affiliation segment and the access line.

[Third embodiment]
The performance of a user terminal (such as a PC or a game terminal) also affects communication delay. Focusing on this point, in the third embodiment, the matching information 1b is added to the information in the first embodiment, and the group is managed including information related to the user quality results.

  For example, a communication environment with a smaller delay can be realized by creating a group with only users who have good quality records. The quality record is evaluated based on the speed record. For example, a criterion for determining that the quality performance is good is based on the fact that the communication speed is at least X Mbps upstream and Y Mbps downstream (X and Y are predetermined values). When a matching request is received from a user, the matching server 1 inquires the network information providing server 2 about the quality performance information of the user, or based on the quality performance information stored as a cache, the matching information possessed by the information itself 1b is used to determine the group.

  Depending on the nature of the network game, only users with good communication quality can be grouped, or considering the balance of communication quality (in a game with 6 people in one group, 3 good users and 3 bad users It is possible to create a group as a person).

  In order to collect communication quality results, a dedicated measurement server may be installed, and transmission / reception traffic to the measurement server may be generated and measured before the start of matching after a user's matching request. That is, at least one of the traffic uplink speed or downlink speed to the predetermined server is measured, and the measurement result is as in the above-described example (uplink X Mbps or more, downlink Y Mbps or more, etc., where X and Y are predetermined values). The matching unit 11 determines whether or not the predetermined range is satisfied, and determines a group.

  Once a measurement result by the above-described dedicated measurement server is obtained for a predetermined user, the result can be stored in the partial network information 1a for a predetermined period, and a cache can be used. Further, if the information on the communication quality results of each user can be acquired from the network information 2a of the network information providing server 2, the information on the communication quality results can be acquired in the same flow as in the first and second embodiments. Good. As described above, by evaluating the quality results at the time of the matching request by using a dedicated measurement server or the like, a tendency to obtain an evaluation close to the quality results when the user actually executes the network game is strengthened. There is an effect.

  As described above, in the third embodiment, the network performance is good when the network game is executed by performing grouping based on the user's affiliation segment and the user terminal performance (communication quality record) information. A group can be determined.

  The second embodiment and the third embodiment can be implemented in combination. An example of the matching information 1b in this case is shown in FIG. That is, when the matching request users are distributed to each group, the group to which the user belongs is determined based on the segment ID, the access line type, and the communication speed record (limit conditions for the uplink speed and the downlink speed). In this example, the type of the access line is FTTH or ADSL, and in the case of the FTTH line, the user who satisfies the communication speed record of the uplink speed of 10 Mbps or more and the downlink speed of 20 Mbps or more is further separated from the user who does not satisfy the condition. It has become. For example, there are two FTTH line users who satisfy the above communication speed conditions (groups ID1 and 2), and the FTTH line users do not satisfy the above communication speed conditions (in the figure, the uplink speed). In this case, one user group (group ID 5) exists.

  The example of FIG. 4 is an example of the matching information 1b in the second embodiment if the “upstream speed” and “downlink speed” fields do not exist, and the “line type” field does not exist. This is an example of the matching information 1b in the third embodiment.

  The embodiments of the matching information 1b have been described above using the first to third embodiments. FIG. 5 shows a flowchart in which the matching means 11 of the matching server 1 updates and manages such matching information 1b as needed. The matching information 1b is updated when a matching request is received from the user, or when a notification for ending the game is received from the user who is participating or waiting in the game. The update flow is started, and in the first step S1, cases are classified according to which type of reception from the user. First, it is assumed that a matching request has been received, and this case will be described. In this case, the process proceeds to step S2.

  In step S2, the matching means 11 determines the group to which the requesting user belongs based on the matching information 1b and the segment to which the requesting user belongs by referring to the partial network information 1a. As described above, the group is determined on the basis of the affiliation segment in the first embodiment, and is further determined based on the access line used and the communication speed record in the second and third embodiments. Further, as described above, when the cache is not used as the partial network information 1a, the network information providing server 2 transmits the partial network information related to the requesting user to the receiving / holding means 10 and the receiving / holding means 10 It is determined after updating the partial network information 1a.

  The group is determined by selecting from the matching information 1b a group that meets all the conditions (affiliated segments, etc.) and does not reach the maximum number of people. If the corresponding group does not exist, a group with the condition is newly created in association with the group ID and set as a decision group.

  In step S3, the determined user is notified of the determined group. When the user receives the group notification, the user logs in to a predetermined game server and belongs to the determined group to start the network game or wait for the network game to start. Basically, if the group reaches the maximum number set in the network game, the game starts, and if not, until another user joins the group after matching and the group reaches the maximum number stand by. However, depending on the type and setting of the game, even if the maximum number of people has not been reached, the game may be executed only by users who already belong to the group. A user who matches such a group that is already executing the game will participate in the game from the middle.

  Proceeding to step S4, the group of the user in step S2 on the premise that there is a transition of the user state in the above step S3 (from the state of not participating in the game to the game participation or standby state) The decision is updated by reflecting it in the matching information 1b. That is, the user is added to the user list of the group. If it is a newly created group, the matching information 1b is updated by registering the group itself and registering the user as the first user in the user list.

  In order to confirm that the user has entered the game participation / standby state, step S4 may be executed after the matching means 11 receives a notification from the user that the state has entered the state.

  As is clear from the explanation of step S4 (and explanation of step S5 described later), a user is listed in the user list in the matching information 1b as shown in FIG. 3C or FIG. That is, being registered means that the user belongs to the corresponding group and is in a state of waiting for participation in the game or start of the game. In the first to third embodiments described above, the description has been made focusing on the group distribution criteria, and thus this property of the matching information 1b has not been described with emphasis. However, the matching information 1b has such a property. Is.

  Returning to step S1, a case where a game end notification is received from the user will be described. In this case, the process proceeds to step S5. When the user ends the game, it may be set in the game server or the like so that the matching unit 11 automatically receives the end notification. Although the game end notification is not described in the first to third embodiments for the same reason as described above, step S5 is appropriately performed in these examples.

  In step S5, the user who ends the game is excluded from the user list in the matching information 1b. Since the end user is not in the user list, the matching information 1b is managed as not being a user who is in a game participation / start standby state. As a result of deletion, the group whose user list is empty may be left empty in the matching information 1b, or the group entry itself may be deleted from the matching information 1b.

  Note that even if the end user is deleted from the user list, the information on the end user remains in the partial network information 1a that exists separately from the matching information 1b. Therefore, when the end user transmits a matching request to start the game again, the cache in the partial network information 1a described above can be used.

  In addition, depending on the type and settings of the game, each user may end the game, or the group may end at the same time, as the game may or may not start after the maximum number of users belonging to the group has been reached. It may end every time.

  A specific example in which the matching information 1b is updated by the flow of FIG. 5 as described above will be described. In this example, the first embodiment described above is assumed. That is, the belonging group is determined based on the user's belonging segment. As an example of the matching information 1b, information on the group ID = 1 and segment ID = 1 shown in FIG. 3C will be described.

  It is assumed that the matching information 1b is empty at time 20:00 on a certain date (YY month ZZ day of XX). That is, although there are group ID, segment ID, and user list columns as shown in FIG.

  If the user 10.0.0.24 issues a matching request at time 20:01 on the same day, the address matches 10.0.0.0/24 in segment # 1 in FIG. 3A, so it first belongs to segment # 1. A new group with group ID = 1 is created as a user group, and the user is registered in the user list (the user list is {10.0.0.24}). User 10.0.0.24 waits for the game to start.

  If user 10.0.1.3 issues a matching request at time 20:03, the address also matches 10.0.0.1/24 in segment # 1 in FIG. It is additionally registered in the group with group ID = 1, and the user list is {10.0.0.24, 10.0.1.3,}. The users 10.0.0.24 and 10.0.1.3 wait for the game to start.

  When user 10.0.1.8 issues a matching request at time 20:05, it is added and registered to the group with group ID = 1 as well, and the user list becomes {10.0.0.24, 10.0.1.3, 10.0.1.8} and belongs Three users wait for the game to start.

  When the user 10.0.0.154 issues a matching request at time 20:06, the user list is similarly added to the group with the group ID = 1, and the user list is {10.0.0.24, 10.0.1.3, 10.0.1.8, 10.0.0.154. }, And the maximum number of people has reached four, so the network game is executed by the four users. That is, the state of the user list of group ID = 1 and segment ID = 1 shown in FIG. 3C shows a state after such a process, for example.

  Thereafter, for example, if the network game in the group with the group ID = 1 ends at time 21:30 and all the users give an end notification, the user list of the group with the group ID = 1 becomes empty. Alternatively, the group with the group ID = 1 is deleted from the entry of the matching information 1b.

  Next, various operation modes of the matching server 1 of the present invention based on the group distribution according to the first to third embodiments as described above and the matching information 1b update according to the flow of FIG. 5 will be described.

  In FIG. 6, each segment (segment # 1, # 2, # 3,...) In the network 5 in the ISP, distinguished by the partial network information 1a of the matching server 1 (or the network information 2a of the network information providing server 2). ). As shown in the figure, in each segment, there is a group composed of each user whose belonging group is determined by the matching server 1. And the communication control server 3 is arrange | positioned in each segment in which such a group exists. When executing a network game in a group belonging to each segment, the communication control server 3 arranged in each segment is used.

  For example, when each user of group # 1 and group # 3 in segment # 1 executes a network game, communication control server 3 in segment # 1 is used. When a user of group # 2 in segment # 2 executes a network game, communication control server 3 in segment # 2 is used.

  The role of the communication control server 3 is the role of a local game server, and is as follows. In general, in a network game, data or a program is periodically downloaded from a data server or a game server provided by a game company before or during the execution of the game. By having a cache of data and programs, there is a role of downloading from a server near the user, that is, as shown in FIG. 6, from the communication control server 3 arranged in the segment to which each user belongs. That is, it is a role which supports communication between the game company server and the user. As a result, the throughput related to downloading can be improved.

  In addition, as another role of the communication control server 3, there is a role responsible for communication between users in a network game executed in a group within the same segment. Through this communication, data necessary for the progress of the game is synchronized within the group. Moreover, communication between specific users is possible in a game as needed. In particular, when both users in the same group cannot establish a direct connection between users due to NAT (Network Address Translation) or other reasons, the communication control server 3 relays (supports NAT traversal). Thus, one-hop communication closed in the segment is enabled. Data to be synchronized in the entire group is also efficiently shared with each user by communication closed in the segment.

  When such a communication control server 3 is used, as shown in FIG. 7, the network game base system 4 of the present invention is configured by including the matching server 1 and the communication control server 3. That is, as shown in the figure, the network game base system 4 exists in the network 5 in the ISP that is grasped by the network information 2a in the network information providing server 2. And the communication control server 3 is introduce | transduced into each segment in which the group determined by the matching server 1 exists in the network 5 in the said ISP as shown in FIG.

  The network game infrastructure system 4 shown in FIG. 7 is a infrastructure system for executing a network game between users whose belonging groups have been determined by the matching server 1, and communicates between the users regarding the network game with the communication control server 3. Can play a low-latency game. The reason why the system is called a base system is that the main role of the system is not to play a part of the contents as entertainment of the network game but to assist communication necessary for game execution.

  When the communication control server 3 supports NAT traversal as described above, the support information is obtained by obtaining the information of the supporting user from the partial network information 1a of the matching server 1 or the network information 2a of the network information providing server 2. .

  Further, when a network game is executed through such a communication control server 3 and when the third embodiment is applied, the communication control server 3 is used as a dedicated server for measuring quality results. Is preferred.

  As described above, the communication interface between the network information providing server 2 and the matching server 1 of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 7 and the like is the ALTO mechanism that is being standardized by the IETF. Can be used. In this case, the matching server 1 and the network information providing server 2 correspond to an ALTO client and an ALTO server, respectively. To obtain the entire network information, Map Service (Network Map) can be used. To obtain a user's profile, the Endpoint Property Service can be used.

  The business models related to the present invention include the following forms (1) to (4).

(1) The network information providing server 2 is operated by an ISP, and the matching server 1 is operated by a game company. The game company pays for obtaining partial network information 1a from the ISP. As the fee, a fixed monthly fee, a fee proportional to the communication amount to the network information providing server 2, and the like can be considered.
(2) Although the operation mode is the same as (1), the ISP provides the network information 2a free of charge.
(3) The ISP operates not only on the network information providing server 2 but also on the matching server 1. The game company is provided with a matching server API (Application Programming Interface) and functions such as a matching request and a group inquiry.
(4) The communication control server 3 is provided to the game company by the ISP as a SaaS (Software as a Service) type cloud server. The cloud server functions include a cache function and a NAT connection support function, and the fee structure is based on resource usage.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Matching server, 2 ... Network information provision server, 10 ... Receiving / holding means, 11 ... Matching means

Claims (10)

A matching server that performs matching to determine a group of users who participate in a network game executed in a group,
Receiving / holding means for receiving and holding partial network information that is part of the network information from a network information providing server that holds network information including information for identifying the network in which the network game is to be divided into segments; ,
Matching means for managing matching information including information on each user who is participating in the network game or waiting to start the network game, and information on a group to which the user belongs,
The matching means includes
When a matching request is received from a user who intends to participate in the network game, the requesting user's belonging group is determined based on the belonging segment of the requesting user obtained by referring to the partial network information and the matching information. A matching server that determines and notifies the requesting user.   When the matching means receives a matching request from a user who intends to participate in the network game and determines the group to which the requesting user belongs, the matching means registers and updates the requesting user in the matching information based on the determination The matching server according to claim 1, wherein when a notification that the network game is to be ended is received from a user, updating is performed by excluding the end user from the matching information based on the end notification. . The network information includes information identifying each segment as a set of IP address spaces belonging to the segment;
The matching means, when receiving the matching request, determines the belonging group of the requesting user based on the segment of the requesting user's IP address obtained by referring to the partial network information and the matching information The matching server according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that   Each time the matching means receives the matching request, the receiving / holding means receives and holds the partial network information including information on the requesting user, and refers to the received and held partial network information. The matching server according to claim 1, wherein the group to which the requesting user belongs is determined.   4. The matching server according to claim 1, wherein the receiving / holding unit receives and holds the partial network information only at predetermined intervals. The network information includes information on an access line used by each user,
When the matching request is received, the matching unit determines a group to which the requesting user belongs based on a segment to which the requesting user is obtained by referring to the partial network information, a use access line, and the matching information. The matching server according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein When the matching means receives the matching request, it performs a predetermined measurement server to measure the communication speed record of the requesting user, and is obtained by referring to the measured communication speed record and the partial network information. 7. The matching server according to claim 1, wherein a group to which the requesting user belongs is determined based on information including the segment to which the requesting user belongs and the matching information . A network game infrastructure system that supports communication in a network game executed between users whose belonging groups are determined by the matching server according to claim 1,
The matching server;
A communication control server arranged in the segment where a user belonging to the group belongs,
A network game base system, wherein the communication control server supports communication in a network game executed in the group to which the communication belongs.   9. The network game infrastructure system according to claim 8, wherein the network information providing server is operated by an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the matching server is operated by a game company.   9. The network game base system according to claim 8, wherein the network information providing server and the matching server are operated by an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

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