{"id":"a4afd388-3629-4e90-bac1-ae619c5eefa4","task":"Implement server-authoritative ping and QoS beacon collection to select optimal matchmaking regions","domain":"docs.microsoft.com","steps":["Deploy lightweight UDP or HTTPS ping endpoints (QoS beacons) in each of your target datacenter regions; these endpoints need only echo a response with minimal processing.","On the game client, asynchronously send multiple probes (e.g., 5 probes) to each regional beacon; measure round-trip time for each probe and compute median or weighted average to reduce outlier impact.","Send the client's per-region latency measurements to your matchmaking backend as part of the matchmaking ticket attributes, not as a trust-me value but as a preference signal.","On the matchmaking backend, combine client-reported latencies with server-side verification (where possible) and apply a maximum acceptable latency threshold to filter out regions that would produce poor gameplay.","Implement a fallback: if client QoS collection fails or times out, assign the player to a default region rather than blocking ticket creation; log the fallback for monitoring.","Periodically re-run QoS probes during the session (e.g., between matches) to detect network condition changes and update region preferences for subsequent matchmaking tickets."],"gotchas":["Client-reported latency is untrustworthy for security decisions; use it only as a preference hint for quality-of-service, never as an authoritative measure to gate access.","UDP probes may be blocked by firewalls or NAT devices; always provide an HTTPS fallback beacon and detect which protocol succeeded for each client.","Averaging latency probes without outlier filtering can be skewed by a single packet loss event; use median or trimmed mean and discard the highest outlier in each probe set."],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T05:23:06.629Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:44:19.984Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/a4afd388-3629-4e90-bac1-ae619c5eefa4"}