NICTA announced the release of a beta version of its massively multiplayer online (MMO) peer to peer (P2P) network engine, Badumna. The software promises to slash hosting costs for games developers and make their online environments significantly more scalable.

According to NICTA’s P2P Project Leader Dr Santosh Kulkarni, Badumna can support millions of users with minimal infrastructure. “It provides a significant competitive advantage over traditional network engines,” he maintains. Badumna has already been successfully integrated with the platform of 3-D virtual worlds platform provider VastPark.

"The VastPark platform allows developers to create their own fully immersive 3-D virtual world,” explains 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. This is something we always wanted.”

According to the Director of NICTA’s Victorian Research Laboratory, Professor 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," he says.

Badumna utilises a managed peer to peer 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.

NICTA signed a commercial license agreement with VastPark in February this year that gives VastPark access to technology developed in the P2P project. The agreement also provides the P2P team with a commercial platform to conduct a large-scale trial and a commercialisation path with VastPark as an industry collaborator. Find out more about Badumna and NICTA’s P2P Project from the NICTA web site at www.nicta.com.au.

Direct link to project page: http://www.nicta.com.au/research/projects/peer_to_peer

Document(s): NICTA network engine ready to play
Contact: Dorothy Kennedy
Phone: +61 2 9376 2098
Email: dorothy.kennedy@nicta.com.au

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