Amazon.com, Inc.
Distributed authority for peer gaming

Abstract:

An application can be executed for multiple peers using a peer-to-peer network structure. State data for the peers can be compared to provide for authority on the session even though there is no dedicated authority component. Such an approach can help to maintain consistency across the distributed network, as well as to minimize the occurrence of cheating or manipulation of the data on the session. A set of state variables is selected, and peers use their local values for those variables to generate hashes to be sent to the other peers. The hash values are compared and any variations addressed accordingly. For any outlier peers that report different hash values, their state values can be adjusted to attempt to bring those outliers back in sync with the other peers. This can involve updating or rolling back specific parameter values for the outlier or all peers.