NICTA slashes hosting costs for MMO P2P networks

The software is expected to slash hosting costs for games developers and make their online environments significantly more scalable.

Badumna utilises a managed P2P network that acts as an intelligent server and provides the functionality required for applications such as large multiplayer games and on-line virtual worlds.

The network engine also provides an interface that delivers information in real-time to end users, ensuring that the load on central servers is minimal so overall costs for hosting the application are reduced.

According to NICTA’s P2P Project Leader Santosh Kulkarni, Badumna can support millions of users with minimal infrastructure.

“It provides a significant competitive advantage over traditional network engines,” he said in a statement to the media.

Badumna has already been successfully integrated with the platform of 3-D virtual worlds platform provider VastPark as part of a commercial license agreement that was signed in February this year.

The agreement gives VastPark access to technology developed in NICTA’s P2P project, as well as providing the P2P team with a commercial platform to conduct a large-scale trial and a commercialisation path.

"The VastPark platform allows developers to create their own fully immersive 3-D virtual world,” explained VastPark CEO Bruce Joy.

“NICTA's Badumna network suite gives developers the ability to have thousands of users in their virtual world without needing to pre-invest in expensive infrastructure,” he said. “This is something we always wanted.”

According to the Director of NICTA’s Victorian Research Laboratory, Rob Evans, the Badumna network engine is an example of how NICTA can collaborate with Australian industry to address opportunities in the digital economy.

“From today, online games companies around the world will be able to trial this promising technology and take advantage of its many benefits,” Evans said.

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