Real-Time Soft Resource Allocation in Multi-Tier Web Service Systems

Abstract

Soft resource allocation is an important factor of system configuration which plays a critical role in guaranteeing the performance of multi-tier web service systems. There is a tradeoff between real-time performance and resource consumption, and thus the real-time adjustment of soft resource allocation in response to dynamic workload is quite challenging. In this paper, we propose a real-time soft resource allocation method that integrates both model-based analysis and real-time optimization. Specifically, a multi-tier web service system is firstly formulated by a queueing network model, and theoretical analyses are provided. Then, an optimization approach for real-time soft resource allocation is designed by applying sliding window techniques, in order to cope with dynamic workloads and performance demands. Based on the RUBiS benchmark system, model parameters are obtained by measurements and the efficacy of our approach is finally validated.