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The Origins of Network Server Latency and the Myth of Connection

Report ID:
TR-694-04
Date:
March 2004
Pages:
12
Download Formats:
[PDF]

Abstract:

This paper presents an investigation into the origin and breakdown of
server-induced latency with the goal of understanding how
latency-optimization techniques can be made more effective. Using two
servers with different architectures, we analyze the latency behavior
under various loads and find that a phenomenon we call {\it service
inversion} is responsible for much of the latency increase under load.
We trace the roots of this problem to negative interactions between
the server application and the locking and blocking mechanisms in the
kernel. Using a modified server that avoids these problems, we
demonstrate a qualitatively different change in the latency profiles,
generating more than an order of magnitude reduction in latency.

We also find that locking and blocking in the operating system
artificially increases the burstiness of the load presented to the
application. By eliminating such delays, not only do we observe a much
smoother level of activity at the server, but we also eliminate most
of the motivation for connection scheduling. In effect, we show that
connection scheduling opportunities at the application level appear to
be largely artifact of the server implementation, rather than a
broadly-applicable technique. Our measurements on the modified server
show much lower service inversion, suggesting that when the
coarse-grained blocking is removed, the existing scheduling inside the
networking stack adequately performs fine-grained connection
scheduling.

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