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Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization

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Giovanni Azua wrote:
> I have this lite Client-Server framework based on Blocking IO using classic
> java.net.* Sockets (must develop it myself for a grad course project). The
> way I am using to pass data over the Sockets is via Serialization i.e.
> ObjectOutputStream#writeObject(...) and ObjectInputStream#readObject(...) I
> was wondering if anyone can recommend a Serialization framework that would
> outperform the vanilla Java default Serialization?
> 
> Three years ago I worked for a "high frequency trading" company and they
> avoided default Java Serialization like "the devil to the cross" this is a
> Spanish idiom btw ... :) due to its latency. However, I must say that their
> remoting framework dated back to the Java stone age and my guess is that the
> default Serialization must have improved over the years; I don't have hard
> numbers to judge though. I remember JBoss Middleware implementation having
> some Serialization framework for this very same reason ... have to check
> that too.
> 
> Can anyone advice what would be best than Java Serialization without
> requiring an unreasonably heavy dependency footprint?

Side bar: What exactly do you mean by "latency" here?

Serialization assumes no knowledge on the restoring end about the structures to restore, so all knowledge has to reside in the serialization format.

Circular dependencies, inheritance chains, the whole megillah has to be encoded into the serialized stream.

Serialization is designed to store and restore object graphs, not the data in them.

Take a page from web services and create an XML schema to represent the *data* you wish to transfer.  This assumes knowledge on both ends of the structures used to hold the data, unlike object serialization, hence much less information must flow between the participants.

Use JAXB to generate the classes used to process that schema and incorporate those classes into the protocol at both ends.

Fast, standard and fairly low effort and low maintenance, assuming you have version control and continuous integration (CI). 

By "fast" I mean both to develop and to operate.

You will write custom code to jam the data into your JAXB-generated structures and retrieve them therefrom.

But you will be transmitting data via a format that omits the object graph overhead and focuses on just the data to share.  The object-graph knowledge is coded into the application and need not be transferred.

XML is awesome for this kind of task.

-- 
Lew

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Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Giovanni Azua <bravegag@hotmail.com> - 2011-10-01 14:46 +0200
  Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-10-01 09:19 -0700
    Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-10-01 21:13 +0200
      Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization jebblue <n@n.nnn> - 2011-10-01 14:35 -0500
        Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-10-02 11:07 +0200
        Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-10-03 11:43 -0700
    Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-10-03 19:24 +0100
      Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-10-04 02:45 -0700
      Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-10-04 08:55 -0700
  Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization markspace <-@.> - 2011-10-01 09:48 -0700
    Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-10-04 02:51 -0700
  Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-10-02 11:10 +0200
  Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-10-03 19:15 +0100
  Re: Low-latency alternative to Java Object Serialization Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-10-02 11:50 +0000

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