Title page for ETD etd-4798-11230

Type of Document

Master's Thesis

Author

Liu, Binzhang M.S.

Author's Email Address

bliu@vt.edu

URN

etd-4798-11230

Title

Characterizing Web Response Time

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Computer Science

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Edward A. Fox	Committee Chair
Marc Abrams	Committee Member
Roger W. Ehrich	Committee Member

Keywords

World Wide Web
Latency
Proxy Caching

Date of Defense

1998-04-22

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

It is critical to understand WWW latency
in order to design better HTTP protocols. In this study
we characterize Web
response time and examine the effects of proxy caching,
network bandwidth,
traffic load, persistent connections for a page, and
periodicity.
Based on studies with four workloads, we show
that at least a quarter of the total elapsed
time is spent on establishing TCP connections with HTTP/1.0.
The
distributions of
connection time and elapsed time can be modeled using
Pearson,
Weibul, or Log-logistic distributions. We also characterize
the effect
of a user's network bandwidth on response
time.
Average connection time from a client
via a 33.6 K modem is two times longer than that from a
client via
switched Ethernet. We estimate the elapsed time savings
from using
persistent connections for a page to vary from about a
quarter to a half.
Response times
display strong daily and weekly patterns. This study finds
that a proxy
caching server is sensitive to traffic loads.
Contrary to
the typical thought about Web proxy caching, this study
also finds that a
single stand-alone squid proxy cache does not always
reduce response time
for our workloads. Implications of
these results to future versions of the HTTP protocol and
to Web application
design also are discussed.

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