Contention-Aware Metrics: Analysis of Distributed Algorithms
Peter M. Urban, Xavier Défago, André Schiper · Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) · 2000
Resource contention is widely recognized as having a major impact on the performance of distributed algorithms. Nevertheless, the metrics that are commonly used to predict their performance take little or no account of contention. In this paper, we define two performance metrics for distributed algorithms that account for network contention as well as CPU contention. We then illustrate the use of these metrics by comparing four Atomic Broadcast algorithms, and show that our metrics allow for a deeper understanding of performance issues than conventional metrics. 1 Introduction Performance prediction and evaluation are a central part of every scientific and engineering activity including the construction of distributed applications. Engineers of distributed systems rely heavily on various performance evaluation techniques and have developed the necessary techniques for this activity. In contrast, algorithm designers invest considerable effort in proving the correctness of their algorit...