A multi-path routing service for immersive environments

The Metaverse project aims to develop technology for low-cost, high-resolution networked immersive display environments that can be used for distributed collaboration, exploration of 3D data models, scientific visualization, and other grid-related applications. Such applications often deal with massive data set and need a high-capacity, low-latency transport service to effectively connect distant locations across the wide-area (best-effort) Internet. This paper presents the initial design of such an end-to-end transport service for Metaverse applications, along with results of a simulation study evaluating its effectiveness. The transport service features an application programming interface providing enhanced control over the way resources are allocated to data objects, and uses multiple overlay-based end-to-end paths to increase bandwidth delivered to the application.