Java BlockingQueue latency high on Linux

Question

I am using BlockingQueue:s (trying both ArrayBlockingQueue and LinkedBlockingQueue) to pass objects between different threads in an application I’m currently working on. Perform

Answer 1

I would use just an ArrayBlockingQueue if you can. When I have used it the latency was between 8-18 microseconds on Linux. Some point of note.

• The cost is largely the time it takes to wake up the thread. When you wake up a thread its data/code won't be in cache so you will find that if you time what happens after a thread has woken that can take 2-5x longer than if you were to run the same thing repeatedly.
• Certain operations use OS calls (such as locking/cyclic barriers) these are often more expensive in a low latency scenario than busy waiting. I suggest trying to busy wait your producer rather than use a CyclicBarrier. You could busy wait your consumer as well but this could be unreasonably expensive on a real system.