Analyzing the overload behavior of a simple web server
Niels Provos, Chuck Lever, Stephen C. Tweedie · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · 2000
Linux introduces POSIX Real Time signals to report I/O activity on multiple connections with more scalability than traditional models. In this paper we explore ways of improving the scalability and performance of POSIX RT signals even more by measuring system call latency and by creating bulk system calls that can deliver multiple signals at once. 1. Introduction Experts on network server architecture have argued that servers making use of I/O completion events are more scalable than today's servers [2, 3, 5]. In Linux, POSIX Real-Time (RT) signals can deliver I/O completion events. Unlike traditional UNIX signals, RT signals carry a data payload, such as a specific file descriptor that just completed. Signals with a payload can enable network server applications to respond immediately to network requests, as if they were event-driven. An added benefit of RT signals is that they can be queued in the kernel and delivered to an application one at a time, in order, leaving an applic...