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On the Performance Regularity of Web Servers

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Abstract

The performance regularity is concerned with the overall performance behavior of a system in the full spectrum of working area. Such a performance characteristic is generally overlooked and does not receive proper attention. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it raises awareness of the importance of the performance regularity of a Web server. Secondly, it introduces the Gini performance coefficient (GPC) as a scale-invariant metric for measuring the performance regularity. In this paper, we present the theorems that relate the performance regularity of a Web server to the GPC, thereby providing a quantitative yardstick that complements the system capacity metric such as maximum throughput for measuring the system performance. To illustrate the use of the proposed approach, we calculate the values of GPC for several representative systems that were used in the public SPECweb96 benchmark study. The results are completely in line with our theoretical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Research Laboratories, Telcordia Technologies, One Telcordia Drive, RRC 1A216, Piscataway, NJ, 08854-4157, USA

    Yibei Ling

  2. Department of Computer Science & Information Science & Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Shigang Chen

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Xiaola Lin

Authors
  1. Yibei Ling
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  2. Shigang Chen
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  3. Xiaola Lin
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Ling, Y., Chen, S. & Lin, X. On the Performance Regularity of Web Servers. World Wide Web 7, 241–258 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:WWWJ.0000028179.81759.ab

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:WWWJ.0000028179.81759.ab

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