Modeling the Performance of HTTP Over Several Transport Protocols
John Heidemann, Katia Obraczka, and Joe TouchUSC/Information Sciences Institute
Abstract
This paper considers the interaction of HTTP with several transport protocols, including TCP, Transaction TCP, a UDP-based request-response protocol, and HTTP with persistent TCP connections. We present an analytic model for each of these protocols and use that model to evaluate network overhead carrying HTTP traffic across a variety of network characteristics. This model includes a analysis of the transient affects of TCP slow-start. We validate this model by comparing it to network packet traces measured with two protocols (HTTP and persistent HTTP) over local and wide-area networks. We show that the model is accurate within 5% of measured performance for wide-area networks, but can underestimate latency when the bandwidth is high and delay is low. We use the model to compare the connection-setup costs of these protocols, bounding the possible performance improvement. We evaluate these costs for a range of network characteristics, finding that setup optimizations are relatively unimportant for current modem, ISDN, and LAN users but can provide moderate to substantial performance improvement over high-speed WANs. We also use the model to predict performance over future network characteristics.Availability
Papers copies must be gotten from IEEE. A version with slightly different formatting is available electronically. Copyright terms for this paper appear below.
Reference
- Heidemann97b
- John Heidemann, Katia Obraczka, and Joe Touch. Modeling the Performance of HTTP Over Several Transport Protocols. ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networking, 5 (5 ), pp. 616-630, October, 1997. <http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann96a.html>.
@article{Heidemann97b,
author = "John Heidemann and Katia Obraczka and Joe Touch",
title = "Modeling the Performance of {HTTP} Over Several
Transport Protocols",
journal = "{ACM/IEEE} Transactions on Networking",
year = "1997",
volume = "5",
number = "5",
month = "October",
pages = "616--630",
keywords = "http performance, p-http, t/tcp, ardp",
url = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann96a.html",
psurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann96a.ps.gz",
pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann96a.pdf",
organization = "USC/Information Sciences Institute",
copyrightholder = "{IEEE}",
availability = "
Papers copies must be gotten from IEEE.
A version with slightly different formatting
is available electronically.
",
}