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Cost/Benefits of optimizations & features

The server architecture also impacts the feasibility and profitability of certain types of Web server optimizations and features. We compare the tradeoffs necessary in the various architectures from a qualitative standpoint.


Information gathering - Web servers use information about recent requests for accounting purposes and to improve performance, but the cost of gathering this information across all connections varies in the different models. In the MP model, some form of interprocess communication must be used to consolidate data. The MT model either requires maintaining per-thread statistics and periodic consolidation or fine-grained synchronization on global variables. The SPED and AMPED architectures simplify information gathering since all requests are processed in a centralized fashion, eliminating the need for synchronization or interprocess communications when using shared state.


Application-level Caching - Web servers can employ application-level caching to reduce computation by using memory to store previous results, such as response headers and file mappings for frequently requested content. However, the cache memory competes with the filesystem cache for physical memory, so this technique must be applied carefully. In the MP model, each process may have its own cache in order to reduce interprocess communication and synchronization. The multiple caches increase the number of compulsory misses and they lead to less efficient use of memory. The MT model uses a single cache, but the data accesses/updates must be coordinated through synchronization mechanisms to avoid race conditions. Both AMPED and SPED can use a single cache without synchronization.


Long-lived connections - Long-lived connections occur in Web servers due to clients with slow links (such as modems), or through persistent connections in HTTP 1.1. In both cases, some server-side resources are committed for the duration of the connection. The cost of long-lived connections on the server depends on the resource being occupied. In AMPED and SPED, this cost is a file descriptor, application-level connection information, and some kernel state for the connection. The MT and MP models add the overhead of an extra thread or process, respectively, for each connection.


next up previous
Next: Flash implementation Up: Design comparison Previous: Performance characteristics
Peter Druschel
1999-04-27