The tortoise and the hare: characterizing synchrony in distributed environments (practical experience report)

Daniel Porto, João Leitão, Flavio Junqueira, Rodrigo Rodrigues

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The design of distributed protocols that run in data centers and enterprise clusters is heavily dependent on synchrony assumptions regarding the timing behavior of the participating nodes and the network. However, little is known about the actual synchrony of real distributed systems, and how it varies across deployments. To better understand this timing behavior and how it impacts the design and implementation of distributed protocols, we conduct an extensive measurement study of the latency for transmitting and processing messages between nodes in four different environments. Our study determines how protocol characteristics affect the latency behavior. We also determine how different environmental factors can affect the measured latency and whether high latency events manifest globally or locally. Our results suggest several directions for reducing latency, and for leveraging recent distributed computing models in a more judicious way.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 48th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2018
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Pages554-561
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781538655955
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jul 2018
Event48th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2018 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Duration: 25 Jun 201828 Jun 2018

Conference

Conference48th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2018
Country/TerritoryLuxembourg
CityLuxembourg City
Period25/06/1828/06/18

Keywords

  • Distributed systems
  • Latency
  • Measurement study
  • Synchrony

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