What is Rock Band enhanced connectivity?

[olanglois]

This is for people being curious about the technical aspect of online gaming. Few days prior the release of Rock Band in stores, a press release announcing the game has been circulating on the net. The press release was, among other things, enumerating the merits of the online aspects of the game and one sentence did catch my attention:

The game will also make use of Quazal's Net-Z technology "for enhanced connectivity."

Then the press release goes on without elaborating on what "enhanced connectivity" means. As having being the lead programmer on Quazal Net-Z library until last summer, I have written a small story (http://blog.olivierlanglois.net/index.php/2007/11/18/harmonix_rock_band_s_enhanced_connectivi)speculati ng about what this "enhanced connectivity" could be.

"The last feature that I have been working on in Net-Z is the possibility to use a relay server (which could be the lobby server) as a fallback method for people behind a strict NAT router. What I am not sure is whether this "enhanced connectivity" will be available on PS3 and on Xbox 360."

Visit my blog (http://blog.olivierlanglois.net/index.php/2007/11/18/harmonix_rock_band_s_enhanced_connectivi) to read the rest.

[Frederf]

Sounds like a bit of a "matchmaking" go-between service for people being NATing (or more precisely PATing) firewalls (neither can accept incoming connections).