Maybe this is very clear for you wizzes but Im stuck in a thoughtloop…
If I want to build a highly scalable java game server there seems to be many saying that java NIO is the way to go. I have also read that it is possible to use SSL with NIO using the SSLEngine API but since SSL is munching a lot of CPU Im wondering it the SSL part can be done using hardware.
Is it possible to use an hardware ssl accellerator for use with NIO (not HTTP-protocol)?
Anyone?
// Gatey
In games, you rarely (if ever) care about SSL overhead on the CPU. The bigger problem is the overhead it can add on the network bandwidth and latency (depending on circumstances).
There is a special case, of web-based games, where the only way to stop annoying ISP’s getting their big asses in the way and screwing up your game with broken Squid setups is to put everything through SSL /me mumbles and rants incoherently in the corner.
So, the first question would be: why do you (think you) need to much SSL?
If one could do without ISP’s…
I want to encrypt the communication between the server to the clients since I dont want any users thinking other player can sniff their network and figuring out their actions.
Im planning the system to have 3000-6000 simultanious users (might not be near that many in reality though ;)).
But if SSL doesnt make that much difference in CPU performance I guess it would be an overkill to have hardware ssl encryption…
/ Gatey