Design, implementation, and evaluation of a client characterization driven web server

ABSTRACT

In earlier work we proposed a way for a Web server to detect connectivity information about clients accessing it in order to take tailored actions for a client request. This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of such a working system. A Web site has a strong incentive to reduce the 'time-to-glass' to retain users who may otherwise lose interest and leave the site. We have performed a measurement study from multiple client sites around the world with various levels of connectivity to the Internet communicating with modified Apache Web servers under our control. The results show that clients can be classified in a correct and stable manner and that user-perceived latency can be reduced via tailored actions. Our measurements show that classification and determination of server actions are done without significant overhead on the Web server. We explore a variety of modified actions ranging from selecting a lower quality version of the resource to altering the manner of content delivery. By studying numerous performance related factors in a single unified framework and examining both individual actions as well as combination of actions, our modified Web server implementation shows the efficacy of various server actions.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.5 COMPUTER SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

  D. Software
  D.0 GENERAL

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
apache server, client classification, content delivery, httperf, server adaptation, web performance