Fight for ping in WoT tanks in Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok

Smoker ping on the left, failure on the right - after launching our peer-to-peer junction

There is a company called Wargaming, whose infrastructure is distributed throughout the world. Server companies are present in the Russian Federation, CIS, USA, Europe and China. The main product is virtual tanks that drive well and technically in Moscow, more or less normally - in the center of Russia, decently - on a part of the Southern Federal District, but with a lot of ping in the Far East.

Traffic from the player in Krasnoyarsk to the game servers Wargaming can easily wind a loop through Moscow. This means a ping of 210-250 ms, which quite strongly affects both the accuracy of shooting and generally the reactions to different events in the game.
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As it was before

Traffic to the WoT servers went through the joints in Moscow. A shot at a foreign tank in the neighboring area for a subscriber of the Far East flew along the following route:

1. Your computer is a broadband node or mobile BS.
2. Jump to our city network.
3. Jump to the highway.
4. N switches (and, if unlucky, the trunk lines of other providers) to the Wargaming site in Moscow.
5. Tank server
6. Way back to our highway.
7. Way back to the city network.
8. Reverse jump to the tanker's knot.
9. Hurray, traffic from him!

What can be done in such a situation and what has been done?

Unfortunately, we cannot overcome the laws of physics while optimizing the delay values. Of course, there are attempts in the world to play back the delay by straightening channels and large investments in construction in hard-to-reach places. Yes, it makes sense to work with the exchanges, but the gain of 10-15 ms for online games in the conditions of our vast country will be insignificant in such cases.

In such cases, online services try to locate the infrastructure as close as possible to customers, and this is true not only for games. Telecom operators, in turn, organize local peering with the infrastructure of services.

We took and built local links from our network equipment to Wargaming servers in Siberia, plus we set up routing so that traffic does not run out of the network if this is not required. Now the path is much shorter, and the traffic does not leave the city network:



Simply put, if you live in Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, you, roughly speaking, have just appeared in the local network a server with tanks. In fact, it is an opportunity to reach the RU-8 server via a short route with an excellent ping result.

What if someone else's tanker on another operator?
On tests under ideal conditions, before the introduction of peer-to-peer routing, the ping across Novosibirsk was, for example, 198-224 ms. After - about 60 ms. If the operator does not have a similar peering, then simply your ping is 60 ms, and the ping of other players is 210 ms.

Is peering available to mobile network subscribers?
Yes, our network node on the city ring, so it will be available to broadband (home Internet) subscribers and mobile subscribers. Naturally, the delay “through the air” will be higher, there is another equipment and its own, special physics of the process. But still it will be a little less, which is nice.

Only tanks?
Any assortment of wargaming. More ships and airplanes.

Is it possible with Steam?
Technical restrictions on the implementation of no, perhaps not only for Steam. Implementation depends on several factors: the availability of appropriate local infrastructure of the service, its popularity. Theoretically, yes, but this requires a regional infrastructure for the service, popularity of the service among users, and a well-developed project for the implementation of the link from the telecom operator.

What other bonuses for WoT?
Soon there will be a pleasant surprise when downloading updates. This can be done faster - peering will be implemented to servers with updates.

And other operators?
Yes, small operators can more quickly resolve issues regarding changes at the local level. But the big ones have their own advantages - joint infrastructure projects on bringing the service closer to the subscriber. For example, a joint installation of a cache solution for Google services.

So, if you have a ping smoker, continue to unnecessarily consider yourself a Krivorukov shooter while your neighbor is swinging. And in general, do not forget to work, clean the house, go to the gym and so on. A big ping will help you pay more attention to these important matters.