Akka Microbenchmark 2

The purpose for this benchmark is to compare local execution vs. remote execution of actors using the random ping with hops algorithm.

The algorithm sends 'ping' messages to all the workers (akka-actors). These then randomly choose a worker to send another 'ping' message to. At each worker, the message hop is decreased until it reaches zero. The program ends when all initial messages have reached their maximum number of hops. converging the algorithm to terminate.

8 workers are used in total for both cases. In the remote case we use 2 machines where 4 workers are instantiated in each.

The machines are iMacs with Core i7's 3Ghz with 4GB of RAM each.
The network was an exclusive one (with only the two machines) @ 100Mbit.

These are the results:

Parameters
Number of actors / workers: 8
Number of initial messages: 10000
Number of hops: 100
Repetitions: 5

Local:

Start pinging around: Fri Aug 12 16:14:48 CEST 2011
Master start run #1
Run #1 ended! Time = 1823.873ms
Master start run #2
Run #2 ended! Time = 1436.701ms
Master start run #3
Run #3 ended! Time = 1459.858ms
Master start run #4
Run #4 ended! Time = 1430.459ms
Master start run #5
Run #5 ended! Time = 1428.142ms
Repetitions reached. Broadcasting shutdown...
End: Fri Aug 12 16:14:55 CEST 2011
Average execution time = 1515.8066 ms

Remote:

Start pinging around @ Fri Aug 12 15:59:05 CEST 2011
Master start run #1
Run #1 ended! Time = 167975.171ms
Master start run #2
Run #2 ended! Time = 161097.271ms
Master start run #3
Run #3 ended! Time = 166351.854ms
Master start run #4
Run #4 ended! Time = 154629.689ms
Master start run #5
Run #5 ended! Time = 123350.197ms
Repetitions reached. Broadcasting shutdown...
End: Fri Aug 12 16:11:58 CEST 2011
Average execution time = 154680.8364 ms

Remote with protobuf:

Start pinging around @ Fri Aug 12 18:49:14 CEST 2011
Master start run #1
Run #1 ended! Time = 109576.114ms
Master start run #2
Run #2 ended! Time = 107756.604ms
Master start run #3
Run #3 ended! Time = 120060.16ms
Master start run #4
Run #4 ended! Time = 111708.355ms
Master start run #5
Run #5 ended! Time = 114418.423ms
Repetitions reached. Broadcasting shutdown...
End: Fri Aug 12 18:58:37 CEST 2011
Average execution time = 112703.9312 ms


Difference: (remote with java / local)

154680.8364 / 1515.8066 ≈ 102.05

These results show a performance degradation of 100x by simply using remote actors.