EMA based statistically adaptive thread pool design

benches/blocking.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#![feature(test)]
+
+extern crate test;
+
+use async_std::task;
+use async_std::task::blocking::JoinHandle;
+use futures::future::join_all;
+use std::thread;
+use std::time::Duration;
+use test::Bencher;
+
+#[bench]
+fn blocking(b: &mut Bencher) {
+    b.iter(|| {
+        let handles = (0..10_000)
+            .map(|_| {
+                task::blocking::spawn(async {
+                    let duration = Duration::from_millis(1);
+                    thread::sleep(duration);
+                })
+            })
+            .collect::<Vec<JoinHandle<()>>>();
+
+        task::block_on(join_all(handles));
+    });
+}

src/task/blocking.rs

@@ -13,9 +13,19 @@ use crate::future::Future;
 use crate::task::{Context, Poll};
 use crate::utils::abort_on_panic;
 
+const LOW_WATERMARK: u64 = 2;
 const MAX_THREADS: u64 = 10_000;
 
-static DYNAMIC_THREAD_COUNT: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);
+// Pool task frequency calculation variables
+static AVR_FREQUENCY: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);
+static FREQUENCY: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);
+
+// Pool speedup calculation variables
+static SPEEDUP: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);
+
+// Pool size variables
+static EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(LOW_WATERMARK);
+static CURRENT_POOL_SIZE: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(LOW_WATERMARK);
 
 struct Pool {
     sender: Sender<async_task::Task<()>>,
@@ -24,12 +34,13 @@ struct Pool {
 
 lazy_static! {
     static ref POOL: Pool = {
-        for _ in 0..2 {
+        for _ in 0..LOW_WATERMARK {
             thread::Builder::new()
                 .name("async-blocking-driver".to_string())
                 .spawn(|| abort_on_panic(|| {
                     for task in &POOL.receiver {
                         task.run();
+                        calculate_dispatch_frequency();
                     }
                 }))
                 .expect("cannot start a thread driving blocking tasks");
@@ -47,18 +58,34 @@ lazy_static! {
     };
 }
 
-// Create up to MAX_THREADS dynamic blocking task worker threads.
-// Dynamic threads will terminate themselves if they don't
-// receive any work after between one and ten seconds.
-fn maybe_create_another_blocking_thread() {
-    // We use a `Relaxed` atomic operation because
-    // it's just a heuristic, and would not lose correctness
-    // even if it's random.
-    let workers = DYNAMIC_THREAD_COUNT.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
-    if workers >= MAX_THREADS {
-        return;
+fn calculate_dispatch_frequency() {
+    // Calculate current message processing rate here
+    let current_freq = FREQUENCY.fetch_sub(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
+    let avr_freq = AVR_FREQUENCY.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+    let current_pool_size = CURRENT_POOL_SIZE.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+    let frequency = (avr_freq as f64 + current_freq as f64 / current_pool_size as f64) as u64;
+    AVR_FREQUENCY.store(frequency, Ordering::Relaxed);
+
+    // Adapt the thread count of pool
+    let speedup = SPEEDUP.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+    if frequency > speedup {
+        // Speedup can be gained. Scale the pool up here.
+        SPEEDUP.store(frequency, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE.store(current_pool_size + 1, Ordering::Relaxed);
+    } else {
+        // There is no need for the extra threads, schedule them to be closed.
+        let expected = EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+        if 1 + LOW_WATERMARK < expected {
+            // Substract amount of low watermark
+            EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE.fetch_sub(LOW_WATERMARK, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        }
     }
+}
 
+// Creates yet another thread to receive tasks.
+// Dynamic threads will terminate themselves if they don't
+// receive any work after between one and ten seconds.
+fn create_blocking_thread() {
     // We want to avoid having all threads terminate at
     // exactly the same time, causing thundering herd
     // effects. We want to stagger their destruction over
@@ -73,25 +100,53 @@ fn maybe_create_another_blocking_thread() {
         .spawn(move || {
             let wait_limit = Duration::from_millis(1000 + rand_sleep_ms);
 
-            DYNAMIC_THREAD_COUNT.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
+            CURRENT_POOL_SIZE.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
             while let Ok(task) = POOL.receiver.recv_timeout(wait_limit) {
                 abort_on_panic(|| task.run());
+                calculate_dispatch_frequency();
             }
-            DYNAMIC_THREAD_COUNT.fetch_sub(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
+            CURRENT_POOL_SIZE.fetch_sub(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
         })
         .expect("cannot start a dynamic thread driving blocking tasks");
 }
 
 // Enqueues work, attempting to send to the threadpool in a
-// nonblocking way and spinning up another worker thread if
-// there is not a thread ready to accept the work.
+// nonblocking way and spinning up needed amount of threads
+// based on the previous statistics without relying on
+// if there is not a thread ready to accept the work or not.
 fn schedule(t: async_task::Task<()>) {
+    // Add up for every incoming task schedule
+    FREQUENCY.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
+
+    // Calculate the amount of threads needed to spin up
+    // then retry sending while blocking. It doesn't spin if
+    // expected pool size is above the MAX_THREADS (which is a
+    // case won't happen)
+    let pool_size = EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+    let current_pool_size = CURRENT_POOL_SIZE.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
+    let reward = (AVR_FREQUENCY.load(Ordering::Relaxed) as f64 / 2.0_f64) as u64;
+
+    if pool_size > current_pool_size && pool_size <= MAX_THREADS {
+        let needed = pool_size.saturating_sub(current_pool_size);
+
+        // For safety, check boundaries before spawning threads.
+        // This also won't be expected to happen. But better safe than sorry.
+        if needed > 0 && (needed < pool_size || needed < current_pool_size) {
+            (0..needed).for_each(|_| {
+                create_blocking_thread();
+            });
+        }
+    }
+
     if let Err(err) = POOL.sender.try_send(t) {
         // We were not able to send to the channel without
-        // blocking. Try to spin up another thread and then
-        // retry sending while blocking.
-        maybe_create_another_blocking_thread();
+        // blocking.
         POOL.sender.send(err.into_inner()).unwrap();
+    } else {
+        // Every successful dispatch, rewarded with negative
+        if reward + LOW_WATERMARK < pool_size {
+            EXPECTED_POOL_SIZE.fetch_sub(reward, Ordering::Relaxed);
+        }
     }
 }
 

src/task/mod.rs

@@ -34,4 +34,4 @@ mod pool;
 mod sleep;
 mod task;
 
-pub(crate) mod blocking;
+pub mod blocking;