Low latency via redundancy

Ashish Vulimiri, Philip B Godfrey, Radhika Mittal, Justine Sherry, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Scott Shenker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Low latency is critical for interactive networked applications. But while we know how to scale systems to increase capacity, reducing latency - especially the tail of the latency distribution - can be much more difficult. In this paper, we argue that the use of redundancy is an effective way to convert extra capacity into reduced latency. By initiating redundant operations across diverse resources and using the first result which completes, redundancy improves a system's latency even under exceptional conditions. We study the tradeoff with added system utilization, characterizing the situations in which replicating all tasks reduces mean latency. We then demonstrate empirically that replicating all operations can result in significant mean and tail latency reduction in real-world systems including DNS queries, database servers, and packet forwarding within networks.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCoNEXT 2013 - Proceedings of the 2013 ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages283-294
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9781450321013
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event2013 9th ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies, CoNEXT 2013 - Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Duration: Dec 9 2013Dec 12 2013

Publication series

NameCoNEXT 2013 - Proceedings of the 2013 ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies

Other

Other2013 9th ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies, CoNEXT 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySanta Barbara, CA
Period12/9/1312/12/13

Keywords

  • Latency
  • Performance
  • Reliability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications

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