Data Privacy and  Data Frames in Cloud Gaming

Introduction

As there’s growth in the Internet of Things, technology and Gaming platforms have taken an evolutionary change over the past 2 decades in the industry. The advancement in gaming technology has fragmented the records continuously over the years with its modern inventiveness from pixel art to 2 dimensions, 3-dimensional models in terms of graphics. The global gaming market has crossed more than 200 billion dollars by 2023.

What is cloud gaming?

The era of hardware gaming has slowed down and been replaced by online gaming might also be known as “Cloud gaming”. Cloud gaming is also known as on-demand gaming or Gaming as a Service (Gaas). A platform that refers to playing video games with processing power and computational valuable resources such as remote servers in the cloud. A gateway with no reliance on local hardware such as gaming consoles, or high-end gaming PC setup that costs a lot of money, Cloud gaming allows users to live stream their gameplay from any device such as smartphones, Tablets, Tv, and low-end computers. Cloud-based gaming is the new periphery in the gaming ecosystem in which several cloud service providers services with their own advantages and disadvantages. Companies that support cloud gaming, such as Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, Sony Playstation now, Nvidia GeForce now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming (precisely known as Project xCloud). These services typically require stable internet connectivity.

Advantages

In Cloud Gaming, the game is enacted and bestowed on power-packed servers located in their data centre. The audio and video during live-stream gameplay to the player’s device in real-time, inputs are sent back to the servers. This allows players to take full advantage of the graphical view and resource-intensive gaming features without actually paying for expensive hardware PC installations. The benefits that cloud gaming provides are not only good for developers but for publishers, as it eliminates the top-tier cost of purchasing and maintenance of powerful hardware gaming consoles. It gives accessibility to the user to access its game and save data anywhere, anytime, with a stable internet connection, as it is stored in cloud storage.

How does it work?

Data frames in cloud gaming refer to units of data that are transmitted from the remote servers to the player’s gaming device during the gameplay session. These data frames consist of audio, video, and input information necessary to provide and update the game plan profile screen. While playing, the game servers constantly process the logic, update the graphics, and generate better-quality audio. The server then compresses this data into frames, especially the snapshots of the live stream. These data frames are sent to the player’s device in real-time. Looking at the player’s end, the received data frames are in decompression mode and displayed on the screen, creating graphical visual and audio experiences. The player’s input, such as clicks, buttons, movements, and voice control, is also transmitted back to the server as pieces of data frames. The server takes these data frames into consideration, revises the game state accordingly, generates a new frame, and the process of sending and receiving continues. The frequency of transmitted frames is measured in frames per second(FPS). Standard gaming data frame transmission takes 30 FPS to 60 FPS, and the possibility could be even higher. These data frames also lead to latency in transmission as it transfers over the internet between the server and the player’s device.

The Process of how data frames are collected, stored, analysed, and how it is being utilised in cloud gaming. 

1. Data Frame Collection: Cloud Gaming platforms collect resources from various sources to gain insights about the player’s behaviour, choice of preference, and performance. This includes the game data in which the player’s actions, input methods such as clicks, movements, and game statistics. Performance data, which gets delayed due to network issues, is rendered and updated in technical aspects. User Profile Data in which details about the player during the registration phase are collected.
2. Data Frame Storage: The cloud gaming provider stores the collected data frames in the database. This database can be used in various aspects, including, Personalizing players’ preferences, progress, achievements, and choice of selection on live stream games, to provide a tailored gaming experience. It stores data and gameplay performance metrics for further analysis and Discernment.
3. Data Frames analysis: The stored data can be analysed using different techniques and tools. This includes recognising various behavioural patterns, Performance optimisation, and business intelligence for analysing user profile data, pricing, market strategies, and content offerings.
4. Utilisation of data frames: Epiphanies gained from data analysis can be utilised in various forms, such as Game development and designing purposes by understanding user preference helps in creating a more creative, more engaging experience.

Data Frame Security is an essential part of cloud gaming as it consists of audio, video, player’s private information, and vital gaming experience information. In order to sustain data security in cloud gaming conveyance and processing, cloud gaming providers employ some measures:

The foremost step is encrypting data frames before and during transmission between the cloud server and the player’s device. Techniques such as SSL(Secure Socket Layer) and TLS (Transmission Layer Security) are the two most essential and standard methods to protect data frames from unauthorised access and tampering with any kind of information. Cloud Gaming protocols transmit data frames on established protocols such as HTTPS(secure) or Websockets, this helps to add an additional layer of security. For network security, cloud service providers use some preventive tools, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems(IDS), and intrusion prevention systems(IPS), to protect against network-based attacks. User authentication, such as 2FA(two-factor authentication) and biometrics in order to protect from unauthorised access to prevent getting the user’s account and their data frames hacked.

Colocation Impacts over Gaming Consoles, Colocations are also referred to as co-locations. Co-locations are data centre service providers that provide a secure, climate-controlled environment. It probably refers to the dwelling practices of their infrastructure services in the third-party data centres.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cloud gaming platforms allow players to set their objectives and goals resembling traditional goals. Players aim for game progression achievements and multiplayer competition, with access to substantial libraries while game streaming, exploring various titles, backgrounds, and tools, can collaborate with other players online. Cloud gaming platforms provide reliability, flexibility, and scalability not only to the players but also to the developers and publishers it is convenient for players to enable and adapt their targets that fit in their choice of preference by taking advantage of its distinctive characteristics. proffered by cloud gaming platforms.

                                       -Sakshi Ankush Dhanawade(cyberpeace intern)