WO2007142387A1

WO2007142387A1 - Method and server for processing traffic for use in on-line service

Info

Publication number: WO2007142387A1
Application number: PCT/KR2006/003484
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kitae Hong; Taehyung Lim; Gangseok Lee; Jihyun Choi; Jongsik Kim; Keejoong Jung; Sanghoon Lee; Bongsu Um; Joomun Lee; Minseok Kim; Heehyeok Hahm; Sangyun Lee; Sehyun Oh; Minho Kang; Daehong Kim; Will Kim
Original assignee: Sk Telecom Co., Ltd
Priority date: 2006-06-02
Filing date: 2006-09-04
Publication date: 2007-12-13
Also published as: KR20070115488A; KR100792836B1

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and an on-line service provision server which monitor a service relationship between a plurality of service subscribers, determine a transmission ratio of general messages to be transmitted to the terminals of the service subscribers according to the service relationship, and selectively transmit the general messages to the service subscribers according to the determined transmission ratio when providing a specific on-line service to the service subscribers by transmitting/receiving a large amount of data to/from the service subscribers in real time, thereby reducing the traffic processing load on the server, and reducing the waste of data packets transmitted/received between the server and service subscribers.

Description

Method and Server for Processing Traffic for Use in On-Line Service

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method and server for processing traffic in an on-line service, and more particularly to a method and an on-line service provision server which monitor a service relationship between a plurality of service subscribers, determine a transmission ratio of general messages to be transmitted to the terminals of the service subscribers according to the service relationship, and selectively transmit the general messages to the service subscribers according to the determined transmission ratio when providing a specific on-line service to the service subscribers by transmitting/receiving a large amount of data to/from the service subscribers in real time, thereby reducing the traffic processing load on the server, and reducing the waste of data packets transmitted/received between the server and service subscribers.

Background Art

As an information-oriented society is gradually realized with the development of information communication technology, the Internet has become an important and necessary medium in all fields including society, culture, economy, etc. Recently, with the development of communication and network technologies, various types of content services, e.g., chatting, clubs, games, and shopping malls, using the wired/wireless Internet have been provided. The various types of content services are on-line services, which enable the user to do various activities, such as chatting, playing games, purchasing, selling, etc., with one or more remote counterparts, in real time. As the users of the content services increase in number, the development speed and propagation speed of the services show a tendency to rapidly increase. The on-line services are provided through wired/wireless communication network, in which the wired/wireless communication network, especially, the wireless communication network, has very poor wireless communication resources due to a limitation in wireless environments, as compared with the wired communication resources. As a result, when an on-line service is provided using the wireless communication network, the communication speed significantly decreases, and the satisfaction of the user of a service terminal using the on-line service deceases, as well .

Recently, with the development of wireless communication technology, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 system, the Wireless Internet Broadband (WiBro) system, High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) system, etc. have been developed to greatly improve the data transfer rate in a wireless environment, and the wired communication technology also has been repeatedly developed to improve the data transfer rate and processing speed in the wired communication network. However, because of the characteristic of the on-line service, which must transmit/receive a large amount of data in real time, the data transfer rate using the wired/wireless communication network does not yet reach the expectation value. In addition to such a limitation in the communication environments of the wired/wireless communication network, there is a problem regarding the processing load in a server providing an on-line service. That is, since an on-line service requires that the signals of many service subscribers accessed from a distance should be processed by a limited number of servers, the processing capacity and processing speed of the server determines the quality of service. Although an on-line service provision system is constructed in consideration of an expected processing capacity and processing speed, it is necessary to improve the capacity and speed of the servers in such a manner as to install additional servers in the pre-constructed on-line service provision system or to update the pre-installed servers due to the increase of service subscribers.

However, even when the servers have increased in number or have been updated, as described above, access congestion from service subscribers causes an error in the servers, or causes on-line service for only a part of service subscribers to be processed, thereby increasing dissatisfaction of the service subscribers for the on-line service .

Also, in the case of an on-line service which is simultaneously provided to a plurality of service subscribers in real time and in which an action of a specific service subscriber influences the other service subscribers, it is necessary to process service logics for the other service subscribers and to provides the results of the processing to the other service subscribers whenever the specific service subscriber performs an action, so that the processing load of the servers increases rapidly, thereby greatly increasing the amount of communication in the wired/wireless communication network. For example, in the case of a racing game, which is one of on-line game services, when characters (hereinafter, referred to as A, B, C and D) of four service subscribers A, B, C and D compete with each other on a racing track, A and B are running far ahead of C and D, and C and D compete with each other, C and D are not influenced in progressing the racing game although not continuously receiving data regarding the locations, distances, speeds, etc. of A and B. Therefore, if processing such data and transmitting a result thereof can be omitted, it is possible to greatly reduce the processing load of the servers and the transmitted/received traffics without exerting any influence on the game.

Disclosure of the invention

However, according to the conventional on-line service, unnecessary data exerting little influence on the on-line service is all processed or transmitted regardless of wired or wireless communication, and data may be processed unilaterally in such a degree that a specific service subscriber receives only a part of information about another service subscriber although the unnecessary data is not all processed or transmitted, so that it is impossible to exactly managing traffic.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and the present invention provides a method and an online service provision server which monitor a service relationship between a plurality of service subscribers, determine the transmission ratio of general messages to be transmitted to the terminals of the service subscribers according to the service relationship, and selectively transmit the general messages to the service subscribers according to the determined transmission ratio when providing a specific on-line service to the service subscribers by transmitting/receiving a large amount of data to/from the service subscribers in real time, thereby reducing the traffic processing load on the server, and reducing the waste of data packets transmitted/received between the server and service subscribers.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for processing traffic for an on-line service by an on-line service server which provides the online service to N number of service terminals by means of a wired/wireless communication network providing a wired/wireless communication service, the method comprising the steps of: (a) periodically monitoring a service relationship between the N service terminals while providing the on-line service to the N service terminals, and checking if the service relationship has changed; (b) selecting at least one reference value corresponding to a change service relationship, which is a changed service relationship, when it is determined that the service relationship has changed as a result of step (a) ; (c) receiving a request for processing of a message from a specific service terminal among the N service terminals; (d) generating processing result information by reflecting the message in a pre- installed service logic, and generating at least one result message including the processing result information; and (e) determining if the result message is to be transmitted to the N service terminals by using the result message, the reference value, and a preset maximum value, and deleting the result message when it is determined that the result message is not to be transmitted.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server for processing traffic for an online service, in which the server comprises a network communication unit providing an interface for communication and a service server unit providing an interface for the online service, and provides the on-line service to N number of service terminals by means of a wired/wireless communication network providing a wired/wireless communication service, the server comprising: a service logic unit which comprises a service logic, periodically monitors a service relationship between the N service terminals while processing the on-line service by means of the service logic, selects at least one reference value corresponding to a change service relationship which is a changed service relationship when the service relationship has changed, requests the selected reference value to be set, processes a message by reflecting the message in the service logic when the message has been received from a specific service terminal among the N service terminals, generates at least one result message including information about a result of the processing, and requests the result message to be transmitted to the N service terminals; and a traffic processing determination unit which sets the reference value when receiving the request to set the reference value from the service logic unit, determines if to transmit the result message to the N service terminals by using the result message, the reference value, and a preset maximum value when receiving a request to transmit the result message to the N service terminals, and deletes the result message when it is determined that the result message is not to be transmitted.

Brief Description of the Drawings The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of an on-line service traffic processing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of an on-line service traffic processing server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a traffic processing method for an on-line service according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a service relationship table according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a reference value table according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a view explaining an accumulation algorithm according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for carrying out the Invention

Hereinafter, one exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be noted that the same elements are indicated with the same reference numerals throughout the drawings. In the following description, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may obscure the subject matter of the present invention.

In the following description, one exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be given regarding an on-line game service, particularly regarding a racing game as an example of an on-line service. However, the subject matter of the present invention is to reduce traffic in providing an on-line service to a plurality of service subscribers in real time by, when an action of a specific service subscriber causes a processing of the service for another service subscriber, selectively transmitting result messages which include data exerting little influence on normally providing the on-line service, so the present invention will be applied to various on-line services including a home trading service (HTS) and an on-line banking service, as well as the aforementioned on-line game service. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of an on-line service traffic processing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The on-line service traffic processing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes N number of game terminals 110, a wired/wireless communication network 120, and a game service server 130.

The game terminals 110 include a mobile terminal, a personal computer (PC), a portable terminal, etc., which are used by service subscribers having joined in an on-line service, particularly to an on-line game service. The game terminals 110 access the on-line game server 130 by means of a wired/wireless communication service provided by the wired/wireless communication network 120, and receive and carry out an on-line game service. The mobile terminal includes a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) , a cellular phone, a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a handheld PC, a Global System for Mobile (GSM) phone, a Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) phone, a CDMA-2000 phone, a Mobile Broadband System (MBS) phone, etc. The personal computer includes a notebook PC, a desktop PC, etc., and the portable terminal includes a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP) , a Play Station Portable (PSP), etc.

The wired/wireless communication network 120, which is a communication network for providing a wired communication service or a wireless communication service, may be a wired Internet using a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) , an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), etc., or may be a wireless Internet using a CDMA 2000 system, a WCDMA system, a Wireless Internet Broadband (WiBro) system, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc.

The on-line game server 130 provides an on-line game service to the N number of game terminals 110, and may be implemented by a typical network server. While providing an on-line game service to the N number of game terminals 110, the on-line game server 130 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention periodically monitors a service relationship between the game terminals 110, selects a reference value corresponding to a change service relationship (which is a changed service relationship) when a service relationship has changed, and determines a transmission ratio of general messages according to the selected reference value. In addition, when receiving a request for processing a general message from a specific game terminal of the game terminals 110, the on-line game server 130 generates a result message by reflecting the requested message in a game logic, determines whether to transmit the result message other game terminals as well as the specific game terminal according to the determined transmission ratio, and transmits the result message according to a result of the determination. For example, when it is assumed that two game terminals carry out a racing game provided by the on-line game server 130, the on-line game server 130 periodically monitors the distance between the characters of the two game terminals in a racing track, determines a transmission ratio for a message corresponding to a changed distance when the distance has changed, and transmits a result message, which is generated according to an action of a specific game terminal, to the specific game terminal and the other game terminal based on the transmission rage of the message. For example, in the case where only two game terminals carry out a racing game provided through a specific game channel from the on-line game server 130 and are near each other, when a racing-game character (hereinafter, referred to as an "A character") allocated to a first game terminal performs a specific action (e.g., using an item to increase its speed), or when the A character gives a racing-game character (hereinafter, referred to as a "B character") allocated to a second game terminal a specific action (e.g., using an item to disturb the progress of the B character) , it is preferred in implementing an on-line game that the on-line game server 130 transmits not only a necessary message including the location of the A character performing the specific action to the second game terminal, etc., but also a general message including information about close-up images of the B character from various angles and close-up images of the A character viewed from various angles. However, when the A character and B character are far away from each other in the racing track (e.g., when they are apart from each other by at least one third of the entire racing track) , and the A character performs a specific action, the on-line game server 130 must transmit a necessary message including information about the location of the A character to the second game terminal, but does not need to transmit a general message, including information about an image of the A character performing the specific image and a close-up image of the A character, to the second game terminal. That is, it is preferred to transmit such a general message in implementing the on-line game, but there is little problem in progressing the game in each game terminal although the general message is not transmitted, so it is not necessary to transmit the general message. Therefore, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the on-line game server 130 periodically monitors a distance between the A character and the B character, determines a transmission ratio of a general message generated according to a specific action of each character when the two characters are apart from each other by a predetermined distance or more, and properly omits transmission of the general message according to the transmission ratio, thereby reducing the amount of communication and the load on the network.

Also, on the assumption that four characters A, B, C and D (hereinafter, referred to as A, B, C and D) carry out a racing game, A may perform a specific action using an item to disturb the progress of B in a state in which A and B are near each other while competing for first place, and C and D are far away from A and B and pursue A and B. In this case, a service terminal allocated with A transmits a message regarding the specific action to the on-line game server 130. Then, the on-line game server 130 generates A→B (which represents information about an image and a location of B viewed from A) (hereinafter, "→" will be used as the same meaning) , A→C, A→D, B→A, B→C, B→D, C→A, C→B, C→D, D→A, D→B, and D→C as results of processing obtained by reflecting the message in a service logic, and transmits a total of 12 result messages including the processing result information to each game terminal allocated with A, B, C or D. In this case, the conventional server transmits all 12 result messages. Since the locations of C and D are far away from the locations of A and B, simple location information about A and B is necessary, but information regarding detailed close-up images of A and B and an image showing the use of the item is necessary only for elegant expression of the game, is not a requirement for the progress of the game, and can be omitted without any problem. In a wireless environment which includes relatively less network resources and requires a higher cost burden based on the amount of communication, as compared with a wired environment, when an omissible result message exerting little influence on the progress of a game is transmitted like the conventional on-line game service, it may disturb the progress of the game, and may increase the cost burden on game participants. Therefore, in this case, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, result messages including a processing result of a specific action applied from A to B are not transmitted to C and D or are transmitted at a predetermined rate to C and D, so that it is possible to reduce a load on the network and the amount of communication without exerting any influence on the progress of the game. For example, according to distances between A, B, C and D, 100% of result messages may be transmitted in a relationship between A and B, 30% of result messages between A and C, 20% of result messages between A and D, 50% of result messages between B and C, 40% of result messages between B and D, and 80% of result messages between C and D, thereby reducing the burden on the on-line game server 130 due to the result messages transmitted to each game terminal.

Although the above embodiment has been given about the case where only four characters carry out the racing game, a typical racing game is carried out by two to eight characters, so that the amount of communication and the load on the network may be more reduced. For example, when it is assumed that four characters carry out a racing game, the number of result messages to be transmitted due to a specific action of a specific character among the four characters is calculated as follows: (3+2+1) x2=12. When such an equation is applied to the case where N number of characters carry out a racing game, the number of result messages to be transmitted due to a specific action of a specific character is calculated as follows: (N+N-1+N-2+N-3+ ©2+1) x2= (N-I) x (N)=N (N-I) . Therefore, when N number of characters carry out a racing game, it is possible to omit transmission of either all or a part of N(N-I) number of result messages to be transmitted. Thus, as the number of characters participating in the game increases, decrements in the amount of communication and the load of the network become larger. In the aforementioned embodiment of the present invention, a distance between characters corresponds to a service relationship between game terminals. That is, when the on-line service corresponds to a racing game, as described above, a distance between characters participating in the racing game may be a service relationship. FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of an on-line service server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The on-line service server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as the on-line game server 130, as shown in FIG. 1. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, an on-line service server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be referred to as the on-line game server 130.

The on-line game server 130 includes a traffic processing determination unit 210, a game server unit 220, a game logic unit 230, and a network communication unit 240. The traffic processing determination unit 210 determines if the on-line game server 130 is to transmit a message to N number of game terminals 110. According to an exemplary- embodiment of the present invention, the traffic processing determination unit 210 stores and sets a reference value and a maximum value as required by the game logic unit 230, determines whether to transmit result messages for transmission to each of the N game terminals 110 when receiving a result message transmission request according to each game terminal 110 from the game logic unit 230, and then either transmits or does not transmit each result message according to results of the determination. The traffic processing determination unit 210 includes a reference value table for storing and setting reference values which have been requested to be set.

The reference value table is used to store reference values requested from the game logic unit 230, and includes a set of reference values configured in a two-dimensional array of N by N-I in order to store and set N-I number of reference values for each of N game terminals 110. That is, the traffic processing determination unit 210 is requested to transmit the maximum of N(N-I) result messages from the game logic unit 230. Since the N(N-I) result messages are to be transmitted to the N game terminals 110, it is necessary to have set reference values between the respective two game terminals among the N game terminals 110 in order to transmit the result messages at the transmission ratio of general messages. Therefore, when determining whether to transmit a result message for transmission to a corresponding game terminal based on the reference values set as above (i.e., when generating a message index), the traffic processing determination unit 210 makes reference to the reference values of game terminals other than the corresponding game terminal. The reference value table will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 5. Also, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines whether to transmit result messages to N game terminals 110, based on the reference values, a maximum value, and the types of messages. That is, the traffic processing determination unit 210 transmits or does not transmit a result message, which is a general message, based on the transmission ratio of general messages which corresponds to a set reference value and a maximum value. To this end, the traffic processing determination unit 210 generates a message index by means of a reference value and a maximum value for every result message requested from the game logic unit 230. Then, only when a result message corresponds to a general message, when the reference value is less than the maximum value, and when the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 deletes and does not transmit the result message to a corresponding game terminal. In contrast, when a result message does not correspond to a general message, or when the reference value is equal to the maximum, or when the message index is less than the reference value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 transmits the result message to a corresponding game terminal.

The message index corresponds to a remainder obtained by dividing a sum of the last accumulated value and a reference value by a maximum value whenever a result message is transmitted. Also, the last accumulated value corresponds to a value obtained by adding a reference value to a previous accumulated value whenever transmission of a result message is requested, in which the previous accumulated value starts from zero. That is, on the assumption that the reference value is "4", the last accumulated value becomes "4" when a first request for result message transmission occurs, the last accumulated value becomes "4+4=8" when a second request for result message transmission occurs, and the last accumulated value becomes "8+4=12" when a third request for result message transmission occurs. In such a manner, whenever a request for transmission of a result message is received, the last accumulated value is accumulatively increased.

To this end, the traffic processing determination unit 210 includes an accumulation table for storing the last accumulated values. The accumulation table stores a set of last accumulated values configured in a two-dimensional array of N by N-I, which corresponds to the number of cases where result messages are to be transmitted to N game terminals 110. That is, when N game terminals 110 carry out an on-line game, the number of cases where result messages are to be transmitted to N game terminals 110 is the maximum of N(N-I). Since the traffic processing determination unit 210 must generate a message index for each case, the traffic processing determination unit 210 stores N(N-I) number of last accumulated values and utilizes the stored last accumulated values when generating each message index. The game server unit 220 is a processing means for providing an interface for the on-line game service. The game server unit 220 receives messages from N game terminals 110 and transfers the received messages to the game logic unit 230. Also, the game server unit 220 receives requests from the traffic processing determination unit 210 for transmissions of result messages to the N game terminals 110, and transmits the result messages to corresponding game terminals .

The game logic unit 230 includes a game logic and processes the on-line service by means of the game logic. When receiving messages through the game server unit 220 from the N game terminals 110, the game logic unit 230 generates result messages as results obtained by reflecting the messages in the game logic, and then requests the traffic processing determination unit 210 to transmit the generated result messages to the N game terminals 110.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, while processing the game service for the N game terminals 110 by means of the game logic, the game logic unit 230 periodically monitors the service relationships between the N game terminals 110, selects a reference value corresponding to a change service relationship (which is a changed service relationship) when a service relationship has changed, and requests the traffic processing determination unit 210 to set the reference value. For example, in the case of a racing game, the game logic unit 230 monitors the progress status of the racing game by N game terminals 110 while determining if each distance between characters (hereinafter, referred to as "N characters") allocated to the N game terminals 110 has changed. Then, when the distance between the N characters changes, the game logic unit 230 selects a reference value from the service relationship table in order to determine the transmission ratio of general messages according to the changed distance. Therefore, when the on-line service corresponds to a racing game, the service relationship corresponds to the distance between the N characters. To this end, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the game logic unit 230 stores the service relationship table.

The service relationship table represents a list of reference values which correspond to service relationships between the respective two service terminals. That is, the game logic unit 230 periodically monitors service relationships between the N game terminals 110 and selects reference values corresponding to service relationships between two mutually different game terminals 110 among the N game terminals 110 from the service relationship table when the service relationship between the N game terminals 110 has changed.

Therefore, when the service relationship between the N game terminals 110 has changed, the game logic unit 230 selects reference values corresponding to N(N-I) number of service relationships from the service relationship table. The reason why N(N-I) number of service relationships are derived from the N number of game terminals 110 is that the direction in which a first game terminal sees a second game terminal may be different from a direction in which the second game terminal sees the first game terminal in an online service. Consequently, a maximum of N(N-I) result messages may be transmitted to the N game terminals 110, so that a maximum of N(N-I) reference values are selected. The service relationship table will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a traffic processing method for an on-line service according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. N number of game terminals 110 access and log in to the game server unit 220 of the on-line game server 130 through the wired/wireless communication network 120, enter a game room by selecting a specific channel among a plurality of game channels provided by the game server unit 220, and play a game. According to the operations of the game terminals 110, the game logic unit 230 of the on-line game server 130 executes a game logic stored therein, and processes the game by reflecting messages and so on received from the N game terminals 110 in the game logic (step 302) . While processing the game, as described in step 302, the game logic unit 230 periodically monitors service relationships between the N game terminals 110 and determines if a service relationship has changed (step 304). When there is no changed service relationship, the game logic unit 230 continues to process the game. In contrast, when a service relationship has changed, the game logic unit 230 selects a reference value according to a change service relationship which is a changed service relationship (step 306) . In this case, as described with reference to FIG. 2, the game logic unit 230 selects a reference value corresponding to an individual service relationship, which is a service relationship between two specific game terminals 110 among the N game terminals 110, from the service relationship table. The game logic unit 230, which has selected the reference value corresponding to the individual service relationship, transmits a preset maximum value and the selected reference value to the traffic processing determination unit 210, thereby requesting the setup of the reference value and the maximum value, (step 308).

When receiving a request for the setup of the reference value and the maximum value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 stores reference values corresponding to individual service relationships, which have been received from the game logic unit 230, as a reference value table containing a set of reference values configured in a two-dimensional array of N by N-I, and then sets the reference values (step310) . In this case, since the maximum value is constant at all times, it is unnecessary to store the maximum value in a two-dimensional array. Thereafter, unless receiving a request for the setup of a new reference value from the game logic unit 230, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines whether to transmit result message for transmission to the N game terminals 110 based on the set reference values.

In the state in which the traffic processing determination unit 210 has set the reference values and the maximum value, as described in step 310, an event to transmit a message may occur from a specific game terminal of the N game terminals 110 according to its operation for the game (step 312) . For example, in a racing game, when a character allocated to a specific game terminal uses a specific item or performs a specific action, such as changing the running direction, a message for requesting the specific action to be processed based on a game logic stored in the specific game terminal is generated.

When an event to transmit a message occurs, the specific game terminal transmits the message to the game server unit 220 of the on-line game server 130 (step 314), and the game server unit 220 transfers the message to the game logic unit 230 (step 316) . When receiving the message, the game logic unit 230 reflects the message in a game logic being currently executed (step 318) , thereby generating result messages as results obtained by reflecting the message in the game logic (step 320) . In this case, a maximum of N(N- 1) result messages may be generated. That is, since the messages to be transmitted to the N game terminals 110 may be generated at a maximum of N(N-I), the result messages may be generated at a maximum of N(N-I), too. In this case, the procedure in which the game logic unit 230 generates result messages by reflecting a message received from a specific game terminal in a game logic is based on an existing game logic.

After generating the result messages, the game logic unit 230 requests the traffic processing determination unit 210 to transmit the result message to the N game terminals 110 (step 322) . When receiving the result message transmission request, the traffic processing determination unit 210 performs steps 324 to 332 in order to determine whether to transmit each result message (i.e., each of a maximum of N(N-I) result messages) to a corresponding game terminal. First, in order to determine whether to transmit a specific result message among the maximum of N(N-I) result messages, the traffic processing determination unit 210 identifies a reference value for a receiver of the specific result message, i.e., for a specific game terminal to receive the specific result message. In this case, the reference value corresponds to a reference value set for the specific game terminal in the reference value table stored in step 310. After identifying the reference value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 identifies the last accumulated value stored for the specific game terminal in the accumulation table, obtains a remainder obtained by dividing a sum of the last accumulated value and the reference value by the maximum value, and generates a message index using the remainder (step 324). Also, the traffic processing determination unit 210 sets a sum of the last accumulated value and the reference value as a new last accumulated value, and stores the new last accumulated value in the accumulation table, in order to generate a message index by means of the new last accumulated value when the result message for the specific game terminal is transmitted. After generating the message index, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines if the result message corresponds to a general message (step 326) . When a result message corresponds to a necessary message or system message, other then a general message, the result message is necessary for playing the game, and thus must be transmitted regardless of a transmission ratio of general messages, which corresponds to a ratio of a reference value to a maximum value. Therefore, result messages which may be not transmitted in order to reduce traffic according to the present invention are limited to general messages. Since the system message, which is an important message pre- defined in the on-line service, is necessary for the on-line game service 130 to provide an on-line service, the system message is indispensable and must be processed. Also, since the necessary message, which must be processed for the logic to provide an on-line service by the on-line game server 130, is an important message in providing the on-line service by the on-line game server 130, the necessary message is indispensable and must be processed. In contrast, the general messages represent messages can be ignored at an appropriate ratio by the on-line game server 130 without causing inconvenience to service subscribers, or even without being recognized by the service subscribers. Although the on-line game server 130 cannot always ignore the general messages, there is little problem in providing an on-line service if the general messages are ignored at an appropriate ratio, so that it is possible to ignore the general messages at an appropriate ratio.

When it is determined in step 326 that the result message corresponds to a general message, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines if the reference value selected for the specific game terminal is less than the maximum value (step 328). According to the present invention, since the reference value is an integer equal to or less than the maximum value, the reference value cannot be greater than the maximum value. When the reference value is equal to the maximum value, the transmission ratio of the general message is 100%, so that a corresponding message must always be transmitted even though the corresponding message is a general message. Therefore, only when the reference value is less than the maximum value, transmission of a corresponding general message can be omitted. When it is determined in step 328 that the reference value is less than the maximum value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines if the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value (step 330) . The determination of step 330 by the traffic processing determination unit 210 is performed in order to prevent consecutive transmission or consecutive non-transmission of result messages when the general messages are transmitted at a certain transmission ratio. That is, the traffic processing determination unit 210 determines if to transmit a result message according to an accumulation algorithm, in which when the message index generated in step 324 is equal to or greater than the reference value, the traffic processing determination unit 210 deletes and does not transmit the result message to the specific game terminal (step 332) . The accumulation algorithm represents a calculation algorithm for properly determining a processing sequence of general messages at a processing rate therefor, which will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. β.

Meanwhile, when it is determined either that the result message is not a general message as a result of step 326, or that the reference value is equal to the maximum value as a result of step 328, or that the message index is less than the reference value as a result of step 330, the traffic processing determination unit 210 transfers the result message to the game server unit 220 so as to request the game server unit 220 to transmit the result message to the specific game terminal (step 334).

When receiving a result message transmission request, the game server unit 220 transmits the result message to the specific game terminal (step 336) . Then, the specific game terminal which has received the result message reflects the received result message in the game, and displays the result message if necessary (step 338). The aforementioned steps 324 to 338 are repeated until every result message requested from the game logic unit 230 has been determined to be transmitted or not. That is, steps 32 to 338 are repeated by the number of cases corresponding to transmission of a maximum of N(N-I) result messages. FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a service relationship table according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The game logic unit 230 periodically monitors service relationships between N game terminals 110, and selects a reference value corresponding to a change service relationship when a service relationship has changed, in which the game logic unit 230 selects a reference value corresponding to a service relationship between two service terminals from the service relationship table, as described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 4 illustrates a service relationship table for a racing game as an example. FIG. 4 shows service relationships which are classified according to the degrees of closeness i.e., into "high closeness," "medium closeness," "low closeness," "periphery," "outer periphery," and "long distance," and shows distance ranges for identifying the the degree of closeness.

The game logic unit 230 determines the degree of closeness according to a distance between two specific characters among characters, which have been allocated to the N game terminals 110 participating in the racing game, and selects a reference value according to the determined degree of closeness. That is, the game logic unit 230 periodically monitors distances between all the characters participating in the racing game, selects a reference value according to a changed degree of closeness when the degree of closeness has changed due to a change in the distances, and requests the traffic processing determination unit 210 to set the selected reference value. For convenience of description, FIG. 4 illustrates the service relationship table containing items of the degree of closeness, a distance range, a reference value, a maximum value, and a transmission ratio, but actually, the service relationship table may be configured only by the degree of closeness or distance range item and a reference value item. The transmission ratio corresponds to a ratio of a reference value of a preset maximum value, and general messages of result messages are selectively transmitted according to the transmission ratio. Therefore, when the distance between two characters corresponds to the "long distance, " general messages among result messages are transmitted at a transmission ratio of 10%, and when the distance between two characters corresponds to the "high closeness," general messages among result messages are transmitted at a transmission ratio of 100%.

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a reference value table according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The game logic unit 230 periodically monitors N number of game terminals 110, which participate in an on-line game service and are playing a game, select reference values corresponding to service relationships between the N game terminals 110 from the service relationship table shown in FIG. 4, and requests the traffic processing determination unit 210 to set the selected reference values. Then, the traffic processing determination unit 210 stores a reference value table as shown in FIG. 5 in order to set the requested reference values. In the reference value table shown in FIG. 5, reference values are stored according to each case to transmit a result message when four characters (i.e., characters A, B, C and D) allocated to four game terminals in an on-line racing game are playing the racing game. That is, while the racing game is being played, the number of cases of transmitting result messages to characters A, B, C and D becomes N (N-I) /2, and the number of cases becomes twice that by taking mutual viewing angles into consideration, so that it is necessary to transmit a maximum of N(N-I) result messages .

Therefore, when the N game terminals 110 carry out an online game service, the traffic processing determination unit 210 stores a reference value table which is a set of N(N-I) reference values having a two-dimensional array of N by N-I, and stores each element of the reference value table when receiving a reference value setup request from the game logic unit 230. In detail, when the "N" is "4," N(N-I) result messages are transmitted as A→B, A-→C, A→D, B→A, B→C, B→D, C→A, C→B, C→D, D→A, D→B, and D→C (wherein "→" represents a result message according to each viewing angle) , and reference values are set as parenthesized numbers in FIG. 5. Thereafter, when receiving a result message transmission request, the traffic processing determination unit 210 identifies the reference value for each result message by making reference to the reference value table. FIG. 6 is a view explaining an accumulation algorithm according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the accumulation algorithm is an algorithm for determining if a result message is to be transmitted according to transmission ratios of general messages, which have been set by means of a maximum value and reference values, when the result message is to be transmitted. That is, when determining if each result message is to be transmitted according to a transmission ratio, the accumulation algorithm distributes turns to transmit and turns not to transmit, thereby preventing the result message from being consecutively transmitted and from being consecutively not transmitted.

The table of FIG. 6 illustrates message indexes according to reference values. When it is assumed that a maximum value is "16," each reference value "N" may have any one within a range of "0" to "16." When the reference values include integers within a range of "0" to "16," corresponding message indexes are shown in the table of FIG. 6. As described with reference to FIG. 1, each message index corresponds to a remainder obtained by dividing a sum of the last accumulated value and a reference value by the maximum value whenever a result message to be transmitted is generated. For example, on the assumption that the maximum value is "16," and a reference value is "4," when a first result message is generated, a message index is calculated as follows: Since there is no previously accumulated value, the last accumulated value is "0." When "4," obtained by adding the "0" and the reference value "4," is divided by the maximum value "16," the quotient becomes "0" and the remainder becomes "4," so that the corresponding message index becomes "4." In this case, the last accumulated value "4" is stored. When a second result message is generated, a message index is calculated as follows: When "8," obtained by adding the last accumulated value "4" and the reference value "4," is divided by the maximum value "16," the quotient becomes "0" and the remainder becomes "8," so that the corresponding message index becomes "8." In this case, the last accumulated value "8" is stored. While generating a message index and storing a last accumulated value are continued in such a manner whenever a result message is generated, when a fourth result message is generated, a message index is calculated as follows: When "16," obtained by adding a last accumulated value "12" and the reference value "4," is divided by the maximum value "16," the quotient becomes "1" and the remainder becomes "0," so that the corresponding message index becomes "0," and the last accumulated value becomes "16". In this case, the last accumulated value may be stored as "16," or may be reset to "0" when the remainder becomes "0" in order to prevent the last accumulated value from continuously increasing. In this case, the following calculation is performed in the same manner as described above.

On the assumption that a maximum value is "16," and a reference value is "8," the transmission ratio of general messages becomes "8/16 x 100% = 50%," so that transmitting a result message and not transmitting a result message must repeatedly alternate each time a result message is generated. In the table of FIG. 6, when the reference value is "8," the message index is changed in the sequence of "8, 0, 8, 0, 8, 0, 8, 0" whenever a result message to be transmitted is generated. In this case, since the message index of "8" is equal to the reference value "8," a corresponding result message is not processed, but since the message index of "0" is less than the reference value "8," a corresponding result message is processed. In another example, when it is assumed that a maximum value is "16," and a reference value is "10," the processing rate of general messages becomes "10/16 x 100% = 62.5%," so that result messages must be transmitted at a rate of 62.5%, and must not be transmitted at a rate of 37.5%. In the table of FIG. 6, when a reference value is "10," the message index is changed in the sequence of "10, 4, 14, 8, 2, 12, β, 0, 10, 4, 14, 8, 2, 12, β, 0" whenever a result message to be transmitted is generated.

The message index of "10" corresponds to a value equal to or greater than the reference value "10," so that a corresponding result message is not transmitted; the message index of "4" is less than the reference value "10," so that a corresponding result message is transmitted; the message index of "14" corresponds to a value equal to or greater than the reference value "10," so that a corresponding result message is not transmitted; and the message indexes of "8 and "2" is less than the reference value "10," so that corresponding result messages are transmitted. As described above, when the reference value is "10," result messages are transmitted at a higher transmission ratio than the case of the reference value "8."

In the table of FIG. 6, portions expressed as "!" correspond to message indexes to transmit a result message, and portions expressed as "D" correspond to message indexes to not transmit a result message. When a reference value is "0," corresponding result messages are not processed from the very first or are not transmitted; as the reference value approaches the maximum value, the number of times of processing result messages increases; and the reference value is equal to the maximum, all result messages are processed.

In the above description, the exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been described about a racing game of on-line game service as an example of on-line service. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to such a racing game, but can be applied to various on-line services . Therefore, the N game terminals 110 may be N service terminals performing an on-line service, the on-line game server 130 may be an on-line service server providing an online service, the game server unit 220 may be a service server unit, and the game logic unit 230 may be a service logic unit. Although an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. Therefore, the embodiment disclosed in the present invention has been described not for limiting the scope of the invention, but for describing the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not to be limited by the above embodiment but by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Industrial Applicability

According to the present invention as described above, upon various on-line services, such as an on-line game, a home trading service, etc., only result messages necessary for the progress of a corresponding on-line service are transmitted to the terminals of the users, and result messages properly omissible without exerting any influence on the progress of the on-line service are not transmitted according to service relationships between users participating in the on-line service, so that it is possible to reduce the traffic processing load on the server providing the on-line service, and to reduce the communication costs of the users.

Claims

[Claim l]

A method for processing traffic for an on-line service by an on-line service server which provides the on-line service to N number of service terminals by means of a wired/wireless communication network providing a wired/wireless communication service, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) periodically monitoring a service relationship between the N service terminals while providing the on-line service to the N service terminals, and checking if the service relationship has changed;

(b) selecting at least one reference value corresponding to a change service relationship, which is a changed service relationship, when it is determined that the service relationship has changed as a result of step (a) ;

(c) receiving a request for processing of a message from a specific service terminal among the N service terminals;

(d) generating processing result information by reflecting the message in a pre-installed service logic, and generating at least one result message including the processing result information; and

(e) determining if the result message is to be transmitted to the N service terminals by using the result message, the reference value, and a preset maximum value, and deleting the result message when it is determined that the result message is not to be transmitted.

[Claim 2]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the service relationship, when a result of processing a service request from a specific service terminal among the N service terminals exerts an influence on one or more different service terminals among the N service terminals, represents a degree of the influence. [Claim 3]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in step (b) , the on-line service server stores a service relationship table, which includes a list of reference values corresponding to a service relationship between two service terminals, in which the on-line service server selects a reference value corresponding to the change service relationship.

[Claim 4]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein step (e) comprises the steps of: (el) generating a message index by means of the reference value and the maximum value;

(e2) determining if the result message corresponds to a general message; (e3) determining if the reference value is less than the maximum value when the result message corresponds to the general message;

(e4) determining if the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value when the reference value is less than the maximum value; and

(e5) deleting the result message when the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value, in which the on-line service server repeats steps (el) to (e5) for each result message. [Claim 5]

The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising, after step (e5) , a step of (eβ) transmitting the result message to the N service terminals in any one or more cases among a case where the result message does not correspond to the general message, a case where the reference value is equal to the maximum value, and a case where the message index is less than the reference value.

[Claim β] The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the on-line service server sets, as the message index, a remainder obtained by dividing a sum of a last accumulated value and the reference value by the maximum value whenever the result message is generated, in which the last accumulated value is obtained by accumulatively adding the reference value whenever the result message is generated.

[Claim 7]

The method as claimed in claim β, wherein the last accumulated value is set to "0" when the remainder has a value of "0."

[Claim 8]

The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the general message corresponds to a message which can be selectively transmitted. [Claim 9]

A server for processing traffic for an on-line service, in which the server comprises a network communication unit providing an interface for communication and a service server unit providing an interface for the on-line service, and provides the on-line service to N number of service terminals by means of a wired/wireless communication network providing a wired/wireless communication service, the server comprising: a service logic unit which comprises a service logic, periodically monitors a service relationship between the N service terminals while processing the on-line service by means of the service logic, selects at least one reference value corresponding to a change service relationship which is a changed service relationship when the service relationship has changed, requests the selected reference value to be set, processes a message by reflecting the message in the service logic when the message has been received from a specific service terminal among the N service terminals, generates at least one result message including information about a result of the processing, and requests the result message to be transmitted to the N service terminals; and a traffic processing determination unit which sets the reference value when receiving the request to set the reference value from the service logic unit, determines if to transmit the result message to the N service terminals by using the result message, the reference value, and a preset maximum value when receiving a request to transmit the result message to the N service terminals, and deletes the result message when it is determined that the result message is not to be transmitted.

[Claim 10] The server as claimed in claim 9, wherein the service logic unit stores a service relationship table, which includes a list of reference values corresponding to a service relationship between two service terminals.

[Claim 11] The server as claimed in claim 9, wherein the traffic processing determination unit stores a reference value table for storing the reference value, in which the reference value table contains a set of reference values configured in a two-dimensional array of N by N-I in order to store and set N-I number of reference values for each of the N service terminals . [Claim 12]

The server as claimed in claim 9, wherein the traffic processing determination unit generates a message index by using the reference value and the maximum value for each result message, in which the message index corresponds to a remainder obtained by dividing a sum of a last accumulated value and the reference value by the maximum value, and the maximum value corresponds to a value obtained by accumulatively adding the reference value whenever the transmission of the result message to the N service terminals is requested.

[Claim 13] The server as claimed in claim 12, wherein the last accumulated value is set to "0" when the remainder has a value of "0."

[Claim 14]

The server as claimed in claim 12, wherein the traffic processing determination unit stores an accumulation table for storing the last accumulated value, in which the accumulation table contains a set of last accumulated values configured in a two-dimensional array of N by N-I, which corresponds to a number of cases where the result message is to be transmitted to the N service terminals.

[Claim 15]

The server as claimed in claim 12, wherein the traffic processing determination unit determines if the result message corresponds to a general message, determines if the reference value is less than the maximum value when the result message corresponds to the general message, determines if the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value when the reference value is less than the maximum value, and determines that the result message is not to be transmitted when the message index is equal to or greater than the reference value.

[Claim lβ]

The server as claimed in claim 12, wherein the traffic processing determination unit determines that the result message is to be transmitted in a case where the result message does not correspond to the general message, or in a case where the reference value is equal to the maximum value, or in a case where the message index is less than the reference value. [Claim 17]

The server as claimed in claim 9, wherein the on-line service includes an on-line game service, and the on-line game service includes a racing game.

[Claim 18]

The server as claimed in claim 17, wherein the service relationship corresponds to a distance between characters allocated to the N service terminals in the racing game.