Investigations into the Performance and Scalability of Software Systems

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dc.contributor.advisorKrishnamurthy, Diwakar
dc.contributor.advisorArlitt, Martin F.
dc.contributor.authorHashemian, Raoufehsadat
dc.contributor.committeememberWang, Mea
dc.contributor.committeememberWang, Xin
dc.contributor.committeememberFar, Behrouz Homayoun
dc.contributor.committeememberChandra, Abhishek
dc.date2019-11
dc.date.accessioned2019-09-24T14:47:29Z
dc.date.available2019-09-24T14:47:29Z
dc.date.issued2019-09-19
dc.description.abstractThis research explores three distinct problems related to the performance and scalability of software systems. The first two problems have the overarching goal of increasing the effective utilization of multicore hardware used to deploy latency sensitive applications. Specifically, I first explore how the multicore hardware hosting a Web server can be utilized effectively while still satisfying acceptable user response times. In the second problem, I study the design of a benchmarking testbed that utilizes multicore hardware to emulate large scale Web of Things (WoT) deployments. The key challenge here is to emulate a large number of WoT devices on the hardware without violating the integrity of test results due to contention for testbed resources. The third problem I studied was motivated by the large number of experiments triggered by my first two studies. In performance evaluation studies such as those presented in this study, practitioners often need to consider how a large number of independent variables, i.e., configuration parameters, impact dependent variables, e.g., response time. Naive experiment selection techniques can increase experimentation effort without necessarily providing more insights on the performance behaviour of the system. I investigate an intelligent experiment selection technique to address this problem. I show that, with the right configuration strategy, a modern multicore server can be utilized up to 80% while maintaining a desired response time performance. However, in contrast to existing studies, the best strategy depends on the server workload. Using detailed hardware counter measurements, I characterize the relationship between workload, shared micro-architectural hardware resources, and scalability. In the context of a WoT emulation testbed, I show how contention for shared hardware resources can impact the integrity of test results. In contrast to similar testbeds, I design a contention detection module that can help testers explicitly recognize such contention during large scale WoT performance evaluation exercises. Finally, I develop an experiment selection technique called IRIS. IRIS exploits approximate knowledge of the performance behaviour of a system to determine how best to place the next experiment point in the independent variable space. I show that IRIS outperforms techniques such as equal distance experiment point selection.en_US
dc.identifier.citationHashemian, R. (2019). Investigations into the Performance and Scalability of Software Systems (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37110
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/111048
dc.publisher.facultySchulich School of Engineeringen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subject.classificationComputer Scienceen_US
dc.subject.classificationEngineeringen_US
dc.titleInvestigations into the Performance and Scalability of Software Systemsen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEngineering – Electrical & Computeren_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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