Web Server Technology Benchmark

v2.0.0 - For a detailed documentation of the changes, please see the change log.

Introduction

This project is focused on comparing the performance of web servers implemented in a small subset of programming languages. The project currently has benchmarks for:

• .NET Core
• Clojure
• Go
• NodeJS

A comparison between the languages can be found in the benchmark.

Web Server

The HTTP API of the web server is defined in the following chapters, and the benchmark will run each of these API aspects in sequence.

Health Benchmark

Route returning empty responses back to the client. This benchmark is focused on determining the performance of the web server and its efficiency in handling the request and response pipeline.

Health Service

The following HTTP API should be implemented by the web server.

Request

GET /health HTTP/1.1

Response

204 No Content

Echo Benchmark

Route echoing a text back to the client. This benchmark is focused on reading incoming requests and return responses based on the parameters in the request URI.

Echo Service

The following HTTP API should be implemented by the web server.

Request

GET /echo/{text} HTTP/1.1

Response

200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain

{text}

Relay Benchmark

Route acting as a relay between a client and another service on the network. This benchmark reads URI parameters, i.e. keys, from incoming requests, passes the keys on to a key/value service, and then responds with the keys and their values to the client. It highlights latency penalties associated with service dependencies.

Key/Value Service

The key/value service is already implemented, and has the following HTTP API.

Request

GET /store/{key} HTTP/1.1

Response

200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "value": "{value}"
}

Relay Service

The following HTTP API should be implemented by the web server.

Environment Variables

The relay service is dependent on the key/value service, and the implementation of the relay service should expect that the following environment variables are set.

Name	Description
Relay_KeyValueServiceHostname	The hostname or IP address of the key/value service
Relay_KeyValueServicePort	The port of the key/value service

Request

GET /relay/{key} HTTP/1.1

The key should be used in a request to the key/value service.

Response

200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "key": "{key}",
    "value": "{value}"
}

Contacts Benchmark

Routes describing a standard CRUD application that stores its state in a database. This benchmark is focused on database operations and highlights latency penalties associated with using a database.

Database

The database has the following schema.

CREATE TABLE contact
(
  id integer NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('contact_id_seq'::regclass),
  firstname character varying,
  surname character varying,
  CONSTRAINT contact_pkey PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

Contacts Service

The following HTTP API should be implemented by the web server.

Environment Variables

The contacts service is dependent on a database, and the implementation of the service should expect that the following environment variables are set.

Name	Description
Contacts_DatabaseHost	The host of the database
Contacts_DatabaseName	The name of the database
Contacts_DatabaseUsername	The username used when connecting to the database
Contacts_DatabasePassword	The password used when connecting to the database

Create Contact Request

POST /contacts HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "firstName": "{firstName}",
    "surname": "{surname}"
}

Create Contact Response

201 Created
Content-Type: application/json
Location: http://{hostname}:{port}/contacts/{id}

{
    "id": {id},
    "firstName": "{firstName}",
    "surname": "{surname}"
}

Get Contact Request

GET /contacts/{id} HTTP/1.1

Get Contact Response

200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "id": {id},
    "firstName":"{firstName}",
    "surname":"{surname}"
}

Get Contacts Request

GET /contacts HTTP/1.1

Get Contacts Response

200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

[
    {
        "id": {id},
        "firstName":"{firstName}",
        "surname":"{surname}"
    }
]

Remove Contact Request

DELETE /contacts/{id} HTTP/1.1

Remove Contact Response

204 No Content