A presentation

on

Scalable System Design

1

Presented by:
Md. Hasan Ansari
MSCS/071/655

Inroduction
2

Scalability is ability of a system, network, or process to

handle a growing amount of work in a capable manner.

For example, it can refer to the capability of a system to

increase its total output under an increased load when

resources (typically hardware) are added.
It is a highly significant issue in electronics systems,

databases, routers, and networking. A system, whose

performance
improves
after
adding
hardware,
proportionally to the capacity added, is said to be a
scalable system.

Measuring the scalability of a system

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There have also been different perceptions on how to

measure scalability:
maximum number of simultaneous users supported by
the system or
maximum transactions processed per unit of time by the
system.

For example, the requirement could say that the system

initially should be able to support 50 simultaneous users,

but it should be scalable enough to support up to 500
simultaneous users.

Measuring the scalability of a system

4

The throughput of the

system usually iincreases

initially as the system is
exposed to an increasing
load.
After a certain limit the

throughput of the system

decreases from Knee
point.

Measuring the scalability of a system

5

This may happen due to

many reasons

like the system may be

feeling the scarcity of
hardware resources

After adding hardware

knee point is shifted.

Scalable System Design Patterns

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Optimize Algorithm
Add Hardware
Introduce Parallelism
Optimize Decentralization
Control Shared Resources

Optimize Algorithm
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The key to the solution is to identify the areas those can be

optimized for performance when the input load increases.

The aim is to identify tasks which can be completed in a

shorter period to save processing time. This shall result in

overall throughput improvement of the system by allowing
the saved CPU time to be allocated for growing work.
These areas can in some cases be identified by carrying a

code walkthrough to identify areas where smarter

algorithms can help improving the performance.

Optimize Algorithm
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If code walkthrough does not help, then certain tools can be used

to identify the areas which are consuming most of the time

during processing.
These tools (like IBM Rational Quantifier) help identifying the

areas (functions) which are eating up most of the CPU time.

Using an alternate algorithm which shall result in keeping the

end result same but complete the same task in a shorter duration.
Known Uses: Running time of Insertion sort is O (n*n), while

that of Quick sort is O(n lg n). Hence, quick sort scales better
with n as compared to insertion sort as depicted in the Figure 4.

Optimize Algorithm
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Add Hardware
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The key to the solution is to identify the hardware resources

which are becoming scarce for the system. The scarce hardware
resources can be identified by using resource monitoring tools
(like prstat/top).
Once the scarce hardware resources are identified, the next step

is to add them in efficient quantity. The hardware resources can

be added to the same existing physical hardware or it may be
added as a new physical hardware.
Adding hardware to the existing physical node will result in what

is commonly known as vertical Scalability, where as, adding

hardware as a separate new node will result in enhanced
horizontal scalability.

Add Hardware
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Known Uses:
Adding RAM to the existing machine incase it is

detected that the system requires more memory.

Adding a separate machine to a cluster in case it is

found that all the existing machines in the cluster are

being utilized to their full capacity.

Introduce Parallelism
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How can a system maintain its performance with

increasing input load?

System that does not want to deteriorate its

performance when the load increases and has the

capability to split the work in to pieces which can
be completed simultaneously.

Introduce Parallelism
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The key to a scalable design is to process multiple

transactions in the system simultaneously. The

system should do parallel processing in order to
maintain the throughput with the increasing load.
The work should be divided in to pieces that can be

done simultaneously so as to do more processing in

the same time.

Introduce Parallelism
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Introduce Parallelism
15

Parallelism can come in different forms:

- A system can have multiple threads (Intra-process
scalability)
- Or, it can have multiple processes (Inter-process

scalability)
- Or, a system can have mix of both of the above

(Hybrid scalability) in order to process multiple

transactions simultaneously.

Introduce Parallelism
16

Known Uses:
Apache-Tomcat cluster having multiple Tomcat

nodes each one of them processing

HTTP requests independently. However, these

different instances may be talking to the same

database instance.

Broadband Remote Access Server

A Case Study in Nepal Telecom
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A broadband remote access server (BRAS) routes

traffic to and from broadband remote access devices

such as digital subscriber line access
multiplexers (DSLAM) on an Internet service
provider's (ISP) network. BRAS can also be referred to
as a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG).
The BRAS sits at the core of an ISP's network, and

aggregates user sessions from the access network. It is

at the BRAS that an ISP can inject policy management
and IP Quality of Service (QoS).

Broadband Remote Access Server

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Broadband Remote Access Server

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The specific tasks include:

Aggregates the circuits from one or more link access devices

such as DSLAMs

Provides layer 2 connectivity through either transparent

bridging or PPP sessions over Ethernet or ATM sessions

Enforces quality of service (QoS) policies

Provides layer 3 connectivity and routes IP traffic through

an Internet service providers backbone network to the
Internet

Broadband remote access server

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A DSLAM collects data traffic from multiple subscribers into a

centralized point so that it can be transported to a switch or

router over a Frame Relay, ATM, or Ethernet connection.
The router provides the logical network termination. Common

link access methods include PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE), PPP

over ATM (PPPoA, bridged ethernet over ATM.
The BRAS is responsible for assigning network parameters such

as IP addresses to the clients.

The BRAS is also the interface to authentication, authorization

and accounting systems.

References
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Reliable Distributed Systems, Technologies, Web

Services and Applications by Kenneth P Birman.

Design, performance and scalability of the

distributed enterprise systems, by Janusz Kowalik.

Distributed systems: principles and paradigms by

Andrew S. Tenanbaum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalability

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