A QoS architecture for collaborative virtual environments

Abstract

We present a QoS architecture for collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), focusing on the management of streamed video within shared virtual worlds. Users express QoS requirements by negotiating levels of mutual awareness using our previously defined spatial model of interaction. The architecture uses these awareness values as part of dynamic QoS management. A key aspect of the architecture is that it maintains a balance between the needs of a group of users as a whole (e.g., which streams are admitted onto a shared network) versus those of individual users within the group (e.g., which streams are subscribed to by a local host). We walk through a demonstration scenario, a virtual shopping mall, to show the architecture at work.