Web++ architecture,design and performance

We describe the design of a system for fast and reliable HTTP service which we call Web++. Web++ achieves high reliability by dynamically replicating web data among multiple web servers. Web++ selects the available server that is expected to provide the fastest response time. Furthermore, Web++ guarantees data delivery given that at least one server containing the requested data is available. After detecting a server failure, Web++ client requests are satisfied transparently to the user by another server. Furthermore, the Web++ architecture is flexible enough for implementing additional performance optimizations. We describe implementation of one such optimization, batch resource transmission, whereby all resources embedded in an HTML page that are not cached by the client are sent to the client in a single response. Web++ is built on top of the standard HTTP protocol and does not require any changes either in existing web browsers or the installation of any software on the client side. In particular, Web++ clients are dynamically downloaded to web browsers as signed Java applets. We implemented a Web++ prototype; performance experiments indicate that the Web++ system with 3 servers improves the response time perceived by clients on average by 36.6%, and in many cases by as much as 59%, when compared with the current web performance. In addition, we show that batch resource transmission can improve the response time on average by 39% for clients with fast network connections and 21% for the clients with 56 Kb modem connections. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

一个基于服务请求语言的统一Web服务框架

提出一种基于服务请求语言的统一Web服务框架UWSF。该框架通过统一的服务发布构件对外提供Web服务,并以服务项为单位进行组织,客户端通过对服务项的灵活组合获得各种定制的服务。引入服务请求语言作为客户端服务请求以及交互策略的描述手段。服务请求在服务端解释执行,使得双方的交互过程能够在会话环境中进行,并且减少了由于中间结果传榆造成的带宽占用。服务端执行基于状态图的流程级交互控制以及基于权限检查接口的服务项级权限控制,保证了会话过程的合法性与完整性。     

Distributed redirection for the World-Wide Web

Replication in the World-Wide Web covers a wide range of techniques. Often, the redirection of a client browser towards a given replica of a Web page is performed after the client’s request has reached the Web server storing the requested page. As an alternative, we propose to perform the redirection as close to the client as possible in a fully distributed and transparent manner. Distributed redirection ensures that we find a replica wherever it is stored and that the closest possible replica is always found first. By exploiting locality, we can keep latency low.     

Analysis of Replica Placement under Expiration-Based Consistency Management

Expiration-based consistency management is widely used to keep replicated contents up-to-date in the Internet. The effectiveness of replication can be characterized by the communication costs of client accesses and consistency management. Both costs depend on the locations of the replicas. This paper investigates the problem of placing replicas in a network where replica consistency is managed by the expiration-based scheme. Our objective is to minimize the total cost of client accesses and consistency management. By analyzing the communication cost of recursive validations for cascaded replicas, we prove that in the optimal placement scheme, the nodes not assigned replicas induce a connected subgraph that includes the origin server. Our results are generic in that they apply to any request arrival patterns. Based on the analysis, an O(D)-time algorithm is proposed to compute the optimal placement of the replicas, where D is the sum of the number of descendants over all nodes in the routing tree     

VOD服务器集群中的改进SLF存储调度策略

在VOD服务器集群中,存储调度策略是影响整个系统存储容量和总并发数的关键技术之一.针对现有存储调度策略中最小负载优先（SLF）副本放置算法调整代价过高的问题,提出了一种改进SLF算法.算法以最小化负载不平衡度和最小化副本调整代价为目标,在放置过程中充分利用当前已经存储的副本,降低副本调整的代价.仿真实验表明,基于改进SLF算法的存储调度策略可以最小化负载不平衡度,降低了存储调度的调整代价,同时提高了系统的用户请求接受概率.     

Efficient support for content‐aware request distribution and persistent connection in Web clusters

To support Web clusters with efficient dispatching mechanisms and policies, we propose a light‐weight TCP connection transfer mechanism, TCP Rebuilding, and use it to develop a content‐aware request dispatching platform, LVS‐CAD, in which the request dispatcher can extract and analyze the content in requests and then dispatch each request by its content or type of service requested. To efficiently support HTTP/1.1 persistent connection in Web clusters, request scheduling should be performed per request rather than per connection. Consequently, multiple TCP Rebuilding, as an extension to normal TCP Rebuilding, is proposed and implemented. On this platform, we also devise fast TCP module handshaking to process the handshaking between clients and the request dispatcher in the IP layer instead of in the TCP layer for faster response times. Furthermore, we also propose content‐aware request distribution policies that consider cache locality and various types of costs for dispatching requests in this platform, which makes the resourceutilization of Web servers more effective. Experimental results of a practical implementation on Linux show that the proposed system, mechanisms, and policies can effectively improve the performance of Web clusters. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scalable replica selection based on node service capability for improving data access performance in edge computing environment

The replica strategies in traditional cloud computing often result in excessive resource consumption and long response time. In the edge cloud environment, if the replica node cannot be managed efficiently, it will cause problems such as low user’s access speed and low system fault tolerance. Therefore, this paper proposed replica creation and selection strategy based on the edge cloud architecture. The dynamic replica creation algorithm based on access heat (DRC-AH) and replica selection algorithms based on node service capability (DRS-NSC) were proposed. The DRC-AH uses data block as replication granularity and Grey Markov chain to dynamically adjust the number of replicas. After the replica is created, when client receives the user’s request, the DRS-NSC selects the best replica node to respond to the user. The experiments show that the proposed algorithms have significant advantages in prediction accuracy, user’s request response time, resource utilization, etc., and improve the performance of the system to a certain extent.

     

Mockup‐driven fast‐prototyping methodology for Web application development

Web application development can be very complicated without an appropriate framework, architecture and application model. A good implementation model can help application developers communicate with clients, consolidate the design before starting the development, speed up the development, and make the code highly reusable. This paper proposes a mockup‐driven fast prototyping methodology (MODFM) for the development of Web applications. It is built on the most recent Web technologies: EJB, JSP, Servlet, XML, Struts, and Web application server. A two‐tier Model‐View‐Controller (MVC) architecture is proposed as the underlying backbone and a supporting environment is tailored specifically in order to enable development. Two basic supporting tools are provided: the dynamic menu generator and the generic code generator, which produce code for front‐end, back‐end and database schemas. MODFM helps to generate fully functional mockup systems for the client to review at an early analysis stage, and continues to provide guidance throughout follow‐on development phases. Real‐life experiences on the use of this methodology in industry are presented as examples. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal replica placement in hierarchical Data Grids with locality assurance

In this paper, we address three issues concerning data replica placement in hierarchical Data Grids that can be presented as tree structures. The first is how to ensure load balance among replicas. To achieve this, we propose a placement algorithm that finds the optimal locations for replicas so that their workload is balanced. The second issue is how to minimize the number of replicas. To solve this problem, we propose an algorithm that determines the minimum number of replicas required when the maximum workload capacity of each replica server is known. Finally, we address the issue of service quality by proposing a new model in which each request must be given a quality-of-service guarantee. We describe new algorithms that ensure both workload balance and quality of service simultaneously.     

The Analysis and Performance of Multi-Rate Service in Distributed Video-on-Demand Systems

In this paper, we develop an end-to-end analysis of a distributed Video-on-Demand (VoD) system that includes an integrated model of the server and the network subsystems with analysis of its impact on client operations. The VoD system provides service to a heterogeneous client base at multiple playback rates. A class-based service model is developed where an incoming video request can specify a playback rate at which the data is consumed on the client. Using an analytical model, admission control conditions at the server and the network are derived for multi-rate service. We also develop client buffer requirements in presence of network delay bounds and delay jitter bounds using the same integrated framework of server and network subsystems. Results from an extensive simulation show that request handling policies based on limited redirection of blocked requests to other resources perform better than load sharing policies. The results also show that downgrading the service for blocked requests to a lower bitrate improves VoD system performance considerably. Combining the downgrade option with restrictions on access to high bitrate request classes is a powerful tool for manipulating an incoming request mix into a workload that the VoD system can handle.     

基于P2P计算的动态多副本开销模型

在多个结点上保持副本是提高P2P或网格计算环境可用性的一个有效途径。不可靠的对等点和网络环境以及用户访问模式的多样性使得难以确定多少个副本能够满足用户高可用性的需求。文章提出了一种最小开销模型来预测和动态控制副本数量。为了隐藏系统中对等点的不可靠性,在考虑多副本的同时通过一种冗余机制预测系统中的副本数量。仿真结果表明,该系统具有更好的可用性和低的副本开销。     

End-to-end latency of a fault-tolerant CORBA infrastructure

This paper presents an evaluation of the end-to-end latency of a fault-tolerant CORBA infrastructure that we have implemented. The fault-tolerant infrastructure replicates the server applications using active, passive and semi-active replication, and maintains strong replica consistency of the server replicas. By analyses and by measurements of the running fault-tolerant infrastructure, we characterize the end-to-end latency under fault-free conditions. The main determining factor of the run-time performance of the fault-tolerant infrastructure is the Totem group communication protocol, which contributes to the end-to-end latency primarily in two ways: the delay in sending messages and the processing cost of the rotating token.To reduce the delay in sending messages for passive and semi-active replication, the position of the primary server replica on the Totem ring, the token rotation time, the processing time at the client, and the processing time at the server must be considered. For active replication, the presence of duplicate messages adversely affects the performance. However, if an effective sending-side duplicate suppression mechanism is implemented, active replication is more advantageous than both passive and semi-active replication because of the automatic selection of the most favorable position of the server replica that sends the first non-duplicate reply.     

Enforcing direct communications between clients and Web servers to improve proxy performance and security

The amount of dynamic Web contents and secured e‐commerce transactions has been dramatically increasing on the Internet, where proxy servers between clients and Web servers are commonly used for the purpose of sharing commonly accessed data and reducing Internet traffic. A significant and unnecessary Web access delay is caused by the overhead in proxy servers to process two types of accesses, namely dynamic Web contents and secured transactions, not only increasing response time, but also raising some security concerns. Conducting experiments on Squid proxy 2.3STABLE4, we have quantified the unnecessary processing overhead to show its significant impact on increased client access response times. We have also analyzed the technical difficulties in eliminating or reducing the processing overhead and the security loopholes based on the existing proxy structure. In order to address these performance and security concerns, we propose a simple but effective technique from the client side that adds a detector interfacing with a browser. With this detector, a standard browser, such as the Netscape/Mozilla, will have simple detective and scheduling functions, called a detective browser. Upon an Internet request from a user, the detective browser can immediately determine whether the requested content is dynamic or secured. If so, the browser will bypass the proxy and forward the request directly to the Web server; otherwise, the request will be processed through the proxy. We implemented a detective browser prototype in Mozilla version 0.9.7, and tested its functionality and effectiveness. Since we have simply moved the necessary detective functions from a proxy server to a browser, the detective browser introduces little overhead to Internet accessing, and our software can be patched to existing browsers easily. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Virtual Service Grid: an architecture for delivering high‐end network services

This paper presents the design of a new system architecture, Virtual Service Grid (VSG), for delivering high‐performance network services. The VSG is based on the concept of the virtual service which provides location, replication, and fault transparency to clients accessing remotely deployed high‐end services. One of the novel features of the virtual service is the ability to self‐scale in response to client demand. The VSG exploits network and service information to make adaptive dynamic replica selection, creation, and deletion decisions. We describe the VSG architecture, middleware, and replica management policies. We have deployed the VSG on a wide‐area Internet testbed to evaluate its performance. The results indicate that the VSG can deliver efficient performance for a wide range of client workloads, both in terms of reduced response time and in the utilization of system resources. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于CORBA消息服务的容错机制研究

CORBA逐渐成为面向对象分布式应用中间件的主要标准，但是CORBA当前没有为容错提供相应的机制，该文在比较各种容错方法的基础上，讨论了一种基于异步消息服务回调和查询模型的容错方法，该方法使服务对象的副本可以并行地处理客户请求，提高了容错的性能，该方法具有对服务对象透明，可以满足用户不同容错要求等特点，文中还给出了这种方法在为遗留应用增加容错能力时的应用实例。     

基于Web服务的态势标绘系统相关技术研究

为了实现态势标绘系统服务化的需求,在详细研究了浏览器端的图形绘制以及服务器发布服务的技术后,提出了基于Web Service的服务化态势标绘系统.态势标绘系统的核心是标号的绘制,服务化需要解决标号绘制的服务化.服务化的态势标绘系统需要提供接口,使采用不同绘图技术的客户端能够调用接口实现标号绘制.服务化的态势标绘系统需要能够快速响应用户的操作,为了验证采用Web Service技术的服务化态势标绘系统能否及时响应用户的操作,搭建了原型系统进行测试,测试结果表明在局域网的环境下能满足响应的需求.     

Client-side selection of replicated web services: An empirical assessment

Replicating web services over physically distributed servers can offer client applications a number of QoS benefits, including higher availability and reduced response time. However, selecting the “best” service replica to invoke at the client-side is not a trivial task, as this requires taking into account factors such as local and external network conditions, and the servers’ current workload. This paper presents an empirical assessment of five representative client-side service selection policies for accessing replicated web services. The assessment measured the response time obtained with each of the five policies, at two different client configurations, when accessing a world-wide replicated service with four replicas located in three continents. The assessment’s results were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. In essence, the results show that, in addition to the QoS levels provided by the external network and the remote servers, characteristics of the local client environment can have a significant impact on the performance of some of the policies investigated. In this regard, the paper presents a set of guidelines to help application developers in identifying a server selection policy that best suits a particular service replication scenario.     

A testbed for performance evaluation of load‐balancing strategies for Web server systems

To improve response time of a Web site, one replicates the site on multiple servers. The effectiveness of a replicated server system will depend on how the incoming requests are distributed among replicas. A large number of load‐balancing strategies for Web server systems have been proposed. In this paper we describe a testbed that can be used to evaluate the performance of different load‐balancing strategies. The testbed uses a general architecture which allows different load‐balancing approaches to be supported easily. It emulates a typical World Wide Web scenario and allows variable load generation and performance measurement. We have performed some preliminary experiments to measure the performance of a few policies for load balancing using this testbed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.