Size-based scheduling to improve web performance

Is it possible to reduce the expected response time of every request at a web server, simply by changing the order in which we schedule the requests? That is the question we ask in this paper. This paper proposes a method for improving the performance of web servers servicing static HTTP requests. The idea is to give preference to requests for small files or requests with short remaining file size, in accordance with the SRPT (Shortest Remaining Processing Time) scheduling policy. The implementation is at the kernel level and involves controlling the order in which socket buffers are drained into the network. Experiments are executed both in a LAN and a WAN environment. We use the Linux operating system and the Apache and Flash web servers. Results indicate that SRPT-based scheduling of connections yields significant reductions in delay at the web server. These result in a substantial reduction in mean response time and mean slowdown for both the LAN and WAN environments. Significantly, and counter to intuition, the requests for large files are only negligibly penalized or not at all penalized as a result of SRPT-based scheduling.