Async Component Interaction

Table of Contents

blocking

Blocking is an overloaded term

  • Blocking API: an API that might force pre-emption

  • Blocked Task: A task that runs for too long

Dealing with blocking in practice

  • Blocking APIs are generally faster

  • Determining if a task really blocks is hard

It’s hard to determine for a full program if all instances of a task are staying under a certain max execution time.

spawn_blocking

  • spawn_blocking is usually the solution for dealing with slightly longer tasks

task::spawn_blocking(async {
    std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(1000));
});

Solution

  • Separation of async and sync parts for benchmarking

  • Runtime monitoring, mostly through tracing.

Component interaction with channels

  • Channels allow communication between tasks

  • This allows weak binding between components

  • All channels work through Ownership

Threading vs. async

  • Threading can be a lot faster in high-throughput situations

  • Threading deschedules automatically if threads run out of their timeslice

  • Async makes it much cheaper to hold slow and sleepy connections

  • Async is very good in reactive models

Models

  • Full async

  • async at the edge

  • Multiple reactors

Example

let (s, r) = mpsc::channel(32);

assert_eq!(s.send("Hello").await, Ok(()));
assert_eq!(r.recv().await, Ok("Hello"));

Classes of channels

  • Bounded

  • Unbounded

  • Single Producer, Single Consumer (SPSC)

  • Multiple Producers, Single Consumer (MPSC)

  • Multiple Producers, Multiple Consumers (MPMC)

  • One-Shot

Strategy

Pick a default one, preferably MPMC. Be liberal in using others when needed.

Synchronisation and Locking: Warning

  • Avoid std::sync types - they preempt

  • There’s and async_std::sync module with API equivalents

Synchronisation and Locking

  • Pick types based on your usage pattern

  • e.g. RWLocks if Writes are common and reads rare

  • Mutex for other situations

  • Fairness comes into play here

Channels as synchronisation methods

Channels act as a natural synchronisation method, as they are read from 1 by 1.

Fairness and starvation

Fairness describes the property of a combinator to make sure that every side is equally served. If one is not, it may starve.