More is less: Reducing latency via redundancy

Ashish Vulimiri, Oliver Michel, P. Brighten Godfrey, 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 diffcult. We argue that the use of redundancy in the context of the wide-area Internet is an effective way to convert a small amount of 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 demonstrate that redundancy can significantly reduce latency for small but critical tasks, and argue that it is an effective general-purpose strategy even on devices like cell phones where bandwidth is relatively constrained.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets-11
Pages13-18
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets 2012 - Redmond, WA, United States
Duration: Oct 29 2012Oct 30 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets-11

Other

Other11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityRedmond, WA
Period10/29/1210/30/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'More is less: Reducing latency via redundancy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this