I'm managing a gaming app backend hosted on AWS in the eu-west-2 region, but it's really struggling with latency for users far away. Here's what I've observed: the response times are around 100ms for users in London, 200ms for Malta, but it jumps to a staggering 700-1000ms for users in New Zealand. I've tried several solutions including CloudFront, Global Accelerator, and Cloudflare with Argo, but nothing seems to help with the long wait times. Unfortunately, I can't go multi-region due to compliance and data requirements. Is the latency just a result of the distance from New Zealand to London, or is there something else I'm overlooking? How do other platforms manage this issue?
3 Answers
Many have tried to battle the speed of light, and few have succeeded. Your latency issues are pretty typical for such long distances. You'll likely need to rethink your server setup to improve that experience.
Unfortunately, you can't really dodge the speed of light when it comes to latency. To provide a better experience, you'd need to set up servers in multiple regions, so players connect to the nearest one. That’s the most effective way to reduce latency, especially for far-off users.
Here are a few things to consider:
1. Bring your servers closer to the end users.
2. Use UDP for parts of your app where latency is crucial.
3. Split your backend logic into sections that absolutely need real-time interactions from those that can handle more delay—like using a thin edge service just for real-time requests and keeping the rest away from Cloudflare and ALB.
I haven’t looked into Gamelift yet, but isn’t it just a wrapper for EC2? Either way, it might be worth checking out to see if it fits your needs.