Paper Info
Title
Using link gradients to predict the impact of network latency on multitier applications
Abstract
Managing geographically dispersed deployments of complex multitier applications involves dealing with the substantial effects of network latency. However, the effects of network latency on an application's end-to-end performance can be far from obvious, thus making it difficult to predict the true impact of infrastructure changes such as network upgrades or server relocation on the users of an application. In this paper, we propose a new metric to quantify this impact called the link gradient. We develop a novel noise-resistant, nonintrusive technique to measure the link gradients in running systems without requiring knowledge of the system structure by using a combination of run-time delay injection and spectral analysis. We evaluate the intrusiveness and accuracy of our approach using micro-benchmarks and a deployment of two benchmark multitier Web applications on PlanetLab. Using these results, we show that link gradients can be used to accurately predict the impact of network latency changes on the end-to-end responsiveness of individual application transactions, even in new application configurations and without requiring a dedicated test environment.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/TNET.2010.2098044
IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Time factors,Delay,Extraterrestrial measurements,Time series analysis,Servers,Noise
Gradient method,PlanetLab,Software deployment,Latency (engineering),Computer science,Server,Computer network,Real-time computing,Web application,Web service,The Internet,Distributed computing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
3
1063-6692
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.35
21
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Shuyi Chen1261.95
Kaustubh R. Joshi250431.09
Matti A. Hiltunen377949.73
Schlichting, R.42234372.48
William H. Sanders52634239.75