Re: [sip-ops] [Sipping] SIP-CLF: Results on ASCII vs. binary representation

["Elwell, John" <[e-mail]>]

Vijay,

Useful figures, which do indeed suggest generating the initial log in
ASCII. The question is whether we need to standardise a binary format
too, or whether any off-line conversion for the purpose of optimising
searches can be done in a non-standardised manner. In other words, if it
is acceptable always to pass around the log in ASCII format, any system
using it can perform its own optimisation to suit its own purposes.

John

p.s. which list - DISPATCH or SIP-OPS?
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] 
> [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Vijay K. Gurbani
> Sent: 29 April 2009 15:32
> To: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> Subject: [Sipping] SIP-CLF: Results on ASCII vs. binary representation
> 
> [Bcc'd to sipping]
> 
> Hello:
> 
> During the SF IETF, the SIP CLF work [2] garnered support
> and attention; the minutes of the ad-hoc are archived in [1].
> 
> While there was near universal support for having a common
> log format, there was a lot of discussion about whether
> the format should be text or binary, the argument for binary
> being that it should be much faster to search.  An option
> for text generation is in [2] and an option for
> binary generation is in [3].
> 
> We realized the question is not "binary vs. text?" but
> "should we optimize for log generation vs. optimize for
> log processing?"  To that extent, this email is to socialize
> the performance results we have obtained for generating
> both binary and ASCII formats, including a simulation of a
> worst-case analysis by retrieving the last record from large
> binary and ASCII files.
> 
> To get these results, we generated 1 Million SIP CLF entries
> into an ASCII file and the same 1 Million into a binary file.
> The ASCII file followed the convention of [2] and the binary
> file that of [3].  The last entry in these files was a SIP
> request with a special Call-ID.  We measured the time it took
> to search for the special Call-ID in both the binary and ASCII
> files.  Here are the results, followed by some discussion; the
> source code to the programs that generated these results is
> also available (see [4].)
> 
> Total records in binary and ASCII CLF file: 1 Million
> File size:
>    Binary: 300,999,984 bytes
>    ASCII:  258,999,984 bytes
> 
> Time taken to generate the CLF file with 1 Million records:
>    Binary CLF: 138.60s
>    ASCII CLF:    7.26s
> 
>    This is a difference of almost 20x in favor of the ASCII CLF.
> 
> Time taken to seek to the last record of the CLF file:
>    Binary CLF:   3.08s
>    ASCII CLF:   16.55s (using perl v5.6.1)
>                 42.92s (using perl v.5.8 and v5.10)
> 
>    The ASCII CLF seek is five times slower using perl v5.6.1,
>    and 13x slower using perl v5.8 and v5.10.  It looks like later
>    versions of perl may have inadvertently made the regex compiler
>    less optimized.  We don't know why.
> 
>    The above data is from experiments ran on an Intel dual-core
>    (T2500 @ 2.00 GHz) IBM T60 laptop running Linux 2.6.27 with 1
>    GByte of memory.
>    We also ran the programs on a more powerful machine: Intel
>    dual-core (X6800 @ 2.93GHz) machines with 8GB RAM and a
>    Linux 2.6.24 kernel.  The results scaled accordingly.
> 
> Clearly, the biggest difference in the above data is the time
> taken to produce the CLF file.  ASCII is a lightweight approach
> since the SIP entity producing the ASCII CLF file already has
> the SIP message in text form.  It is then just a matter of
> writing the fields out on disk.  With the binary form, the
> SIP entity producing the binary CLF file has to calculate
> offsets, which takes a non-negligible amount of time.  Since
> the entity producing the SIP CLF log file should not be over-
> burdened with the act of producing it, we feel that ASCII CLF
> generation is the only choice here (i.e., we should optimize for
> log generation.)  Otherwise, the SIP entity producing the
> binary CLF file will spend an inordinate time in calculating
> offsets, creating a table of contents, etc. to the detriment
> of providing the service it is supposed to.
> 
> That said, it is also clear that the the worst-case search
> for a record is at five to 13x slower when using ASCII.  But,
> because searching is done offline, we feel that this sub-optimality
> can well be tolerated.  We also feel that there is value in
> specifying a binary format because it allows for SIP operators
> who want to do such searches to convert their ASCII files to
> binary for optimized traversal and other such uses.  A binary
> format  must be defined so that offline processes can convert
> the captured ASCII data to binary format for optimized
> traversal.
> 
> Comments and discussions on these results are welcome.  If
> you find any errors in the programs used to generate
> these results, please do let us know.
> 
> [1] Thread "[Sipping] Meeting Minutes: Ad-hoc Common Log Format
>   meeting," IETF SIPPING WG, March 27, 2009.  Archived at:
>   http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/sipping/current/msg17199.html
> 
> [2] V. Gurbani, E. Burger, T. Anjali, H. Abdelnur and O. Festor,
>   "The Common Log File (CLF) format for the Session Initiation
>   Protocol (SIP)," IETF Internet-Draft, work in progress, March 9,
>   2009.  Archived at:
>   http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-gurbani-sipping-clf-01
> 
> [3] A. Roach, "Binary Syntax for SIP Common Log Format," IETF
>   Internet-Draft, work in progress, March 25, 2009.  Archived at:
>   http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-roach-sipping-clf-syntax-00.
> 
> [4] Source code available at the following URLs; please see
>   comment block in clf-write.c on how to generate ASCII and
>   binary CLF files.
>   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/IETF/sip-clf/write-clf.c
>   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/IETF/sip-clf/clf.h
>   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/IETF/sip-clf/read-clf-record.c
>   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/IETF/sip-clf/read-clf-record.pl
>   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/IETF/sip-clf/Makefile
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> - vijay
> -- 
> Vijay K. Gurbani, Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent
> 1960 Lucent Lane, Rm. 9C-533, Naperville, Illinois 60566 (USA)
> Email: vkg@{alcatel-lucent.com,bell-labs.com,acm.org}
> Web:   http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/vkg/
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