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<h2><a href="https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/TOP/Thread+Pools">Thread Pools</a></h2>
<h4>Page <b>added</b> by <a href="https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/~mmichelson">Mark Michelson</a>
</h4>
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<div class='panelMacro'><table class='warningMacro'><colgroup><col width='24'><col></colgroup><tr><td valign='top'><img src="/wiki/images/icons/emoticons/forbidden.gif" width="16" height="16" align="absmiddle" alt="" border="0"></td><td>Under construction</td></tr></table></div>
<p>In <a href="/wiki/display/TOP/Component+Threading+Design+for+Asynchronous+Operations" title="Component Threading Design for Asynchronous Operations">Component Threading Design for Asynchronous Operations</a>, the <tt>Workqueue</tt> interface was defined, and an implementation, called a <tt>SimpleWorkQueue</tt> was proposed. While the <tt>SimpleWorkQueue</tt> is a good implementation for instances where a single thread is needed, another implementation is needed when multiple threads are required.</p>
<h1><a name="ThreadPools-Configurationconsiderations"></a>Configuration considerations</h1>
<p>Thread pools have a potential for lots of knobs to be tweaked regarding their operation.</p>
<h3><a name="ThreadPools-StaticorDynamic"></a>Static or Dynamic</h3>
<p>A static thread pool is one in which a set number of threads are created at the time that the thread pool is constructed. The thread pool will always have this number of worker threads no matter the amount of system load. Dynamic thread pools start with some initial number of threads and then can grow or shrink depending on the amount of load on the system. Since static thread pools are simple, we will focus on the dynamic thread pool configuration.</p>
<h3><a name="ThreadPools-GrowthPolicy"></a>Growth Policy</h3>
<p>It's obvious that a dynamic thread pool should grow when needed, but there needs to be some set of rules to govern the growth. </p>
<h5><a name="ThreadPools-MaxSize"></a>Max Size</h5>
<p>One valid concern is letting the thread pool grow to an unreasonable size, so an obvious configuration option for dynamic thread pools is a maximum size. Once the thread pool has reached its max capacity it will no longer grow, even if policy states that the load is such that it should grow more.</p>
<h5><a name="ThreadPools-GrowthConditions"></a>Growth Conditions</h5>
<p>What also needs to be configurable is the determination of when to increase the size of the thread pool. "Load" can be determined in several ways, including</p>
<ul>
<li>Frequency of tasks being queued</li>
<li>Backlog of tasks in each worker thread</li>
<li>Average time delta between a task's being queued and its execution (Turnaround time)</li>
</ul>
<p>XXX Revisit this</p>
<h5><a name="ThreadPools-Growthamount"></a>Growth amount</h5>
<p>Once it's been decided that the thread pool should grow, by how many threads should the pool grow? Potential methods are to grow by a fixed amount or to double the size of the thread pool.</p>
<h3><a name="ThreadPools-ShrinkingPolicy"></a>Shrinking Policy</h3>
<p>A dynamic thread pool may grow as needed, but should the thread pool shrink if the system load has decreased? It certainly seems like it would be desired. Otherwise a spike in load could cause a permanent allocation of threads which would barely ever be used.</p>
<h5><a name="ThreadPools-MinSize"></a>Min Size</h5>
<p>It's useful to be able to shrink the thread pool, but it also seems prudent to make sure the thread pool doesn't get <b>too</b> small. Specifying a minimum size will allow for the thread pool to shrink only to a specified minimum.</p>
<h5><a name="ThreadPools-ShrinkConditions"></a>Shrink Conditions</h5>
<p>Like with growth, it needs to be determined what metric should be used to determine when a thread pool may shrink. Determining inactivity in a thread can really only be done by measuring the time that a thread has been idle. After a certain cutoff point, the thread can be considered "dead" and be removed from the pool. Unlike with thread pool growth, you can't really have a configured shrink amount since the pool must shrink a single thread at a time.</p>
<h3><a name="ThreadPools-Initialsize"></a>Initial size</h3>
<p>Both dynamic and static thread pools will need an initial size. The static thread pool will just remain that size forever whereas the dynamic thread pool will adjust based on other parameters.</p>
<p>To be continued</p>
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