Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hierarchical Workload Characterization for a Busy Web Server

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computer Performance Evaluation: Modelling Techniques and Tools (TOOLS 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2324))

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of a Web server access hierarchy—a three-tier hierarchy that describes the traffic to a Web server in three levels: as aggregate traffic from multiple clients, as traffic from individual clients, and as traffic within sessions of individual clients. A detailed workload characterization study was undertaken of the Web server access hierarchy of a busy commercial server using an access log of 80 million requests captured over seven days of observation. The behavioural characteristics that emerge from this study show different features at each level and suggest effective stategies for managing resources at busy Internet Web servers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. V. Almeida, A. Bestavros, M. Crovella, and A. Oliveira, “Characterizing Reference Locality in the World Wide Web,“ in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Parallel and Distributed Information Systems, Miami Beach, Florida, pp. 92–103, December 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  2. V. Almeida, D. Menasce, R. Riedi, F. Pelegrinelli, R. Fonseca, and W. Meira, Jr., “Analyzing Web Robots and their Impact on Caching,” in Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Web Caching and Content Distribution, Boston, Massachusetts, June 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  3. V. Almeida, D. Menasce, R. Riedi, F. Pelegrinelli, R. Fonseca, and W. Meira, Jr., “Analyzing Robot Behaviour in E-Business Sites,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGMETRICS Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 338–339, June 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  4. M. F. Arlitt, “Characterizing Web User Sessions,” Performance Evaluation Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 50–56, September 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. M. F. Arlitt and C. L. Williamson, “Internet Web Servers: Workload Characterization and Performance Implications,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 631–645, October 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. M. Arlitt and T. Jin, “A Workload Characterization Study of the 1998 World Cup Web Site,” IEEE Networks, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 30–37, May/June 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. P. Barford, A. Bestavros, A. Bradley, and M. Crovella, “Changes in Web Client Access Patterns: Characteristics and Caching Implications,” World Wide Web, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 15–28, January 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. H. Braun and K. C. Claffy, “Web Traffic Characterization: An Assessment of the Impact of Caching Documents from NCSA’s Web Server,” Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 28, pp. 37–51, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. L. D. Catledge, and J. E. Pitkow, “Characterizing Browsing Strategies in the World Wide Web,” Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 1065–1073, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. M. E. Crovella and A. Bestavros, “Self-Similarity in World Wide Web Traffic: Evidence and Possible Causes,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGMETRICS Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pp. 160–169, May 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  11. C. R. Cunha and A. Bestavros, and M. E. Crovella, “Characteristic of World Wide Web Client-Based Traces,” Technical Report TR-95-010, Department of Computer Science, Boston University, Boston, Massachussets, April 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  12. J. H. Hine, C. E. Wills, A. Martel, and J. Sommers, “Combining Client Knowledge and Resource Dependencies for Improved World Wide Web Performance”, in Proceedings of the INET 1998 Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, July 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  13. S. Jin and A. Bestavros, “Sources and Characteristics of Web Temporal Locality,” in Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Computer and Telecomminucation Systems, San Francisco, California, August/September 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  14. M. G. Kienzle, J. A. Garay, and W. H. Tetzlaff, “Analysis of Page-Reference Strings of an Interactive System,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 523–535, July 1988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. A. Mahanti, Web Proxy Workload Characterization and Modeling, M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, September 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  16. D. Menasce, V. Almeida, R. Riedi, F. Peligrinelli, R. Fonseca, W. Meira Jr., “In Search of Invariants for E-Business Workloads,” in Proceedings of the Second ACM Electronic Commerce Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  17. J. C. Mogul, “The Case for Persistent-Connection HTTP,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM Conference, Cambridge, Massachussets, pp. 299–313, August 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  18. J. C. Mogul “Network Behavior of a Busy Web Server and Its Clients,“ WRL Research Report 95/4, Digital Western Research Laboratory, May 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  19. A. A. Oke, Workload Characterization for Resource Management at Web Servers, M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, October 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  20. J. Spirn, “Distance String Models for Program Behaviour,” IEEE Computer, Vol. 9, No. 11, pp. 14–20, November 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  21. K. Yap, “A Technical Overview of the New HTTP/1.1 Specification,” in Proceedings of the Third Australian World Wide Web Conference, Australia, May 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  22. G. K. Zipf, Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort, Addison-Wesley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1949.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A9, Canada

    Adeniyi Oke & Rick Bunt

Authors
  1. Adeniyi Oke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rick Bunt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Huxley Building, 180 Queen’s Gate, London, SW7 2BZ, UK

    Tony Field , Peter G. Harrison  & Jeremy Bradley ,  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Oke, A., Bunt, R. (2002). Hierarchical Workload Characterization for a Busy Web Server. In: Field, T., Harrison, P.G., Bradley, J., Harder, U. (eds) Computer Performance Evaluation: Modelling Techniques and Tools. TOOLS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2324. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46029-2_23

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46029-2_23

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43539-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46029-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation