Revealing Performance Issues in Server-side WebAssembly Runtimes via Differential Testing
WebAssembly (Wasm) is a bytecode format originally serving as a compilation target for Web applications. It has recently been used increasingly on the server side, e.g., providing a safer, faster, and more portable alternative to Linux containers. With the popularity of server-side Wasm applications, it is essential to study performance issues (i.e., abnormal latency) in Wasm runtimes, as they may cause a significant impact on server-side applications. However, there is still a lack of attention to performance issues in server-side Wasm runtimes. In this paper, we design a novel differential testing approach WarpDiff to identify performance issues in server-side Wasm runtimes. The key insight is that in normal cases, the execution time of the same test case on different Wasm runtimes should follow an oracle ratio. We identify abnormal cases where the execution time ratio significantly deviates from the oracle ratio and subsequently locate the Wasm runtimes that cause the performance issues. We apply WarpDiff to test five popular server-side Wasm runtimes using 123 test cases from the LLVM test suite and demonstrate the top 10 abnormal cases we identified. We further conduct an in-depth analysis of these abnormal cases and summarize seven performance issues, all of which have been confirmed by the developers. We hope our work can inspire future investigation on improving Wasm runtime implementation and thus promoting the development of server-side Wasm applications.
Wed 13 SepDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
10:30 - 12:00 | Web Development 2Industry Showcase (Papers) / Research Papers / NIER Track / Journal-first Papers at Room E Chair(s): Hadar Ziv University of California, Irvine | ||
10:30 12mTalk | Metamorphic Testing for Web System Security Journal-first Papers Nazanin Bayati Chaleshtari University of Ottawa, Fabrizio Pastore University of Luxembourg, Arda Goknil SINTEF Digital, Lionel Briand University of Luxembourg; University of Ottawa Link to publication DOI Pre-print | ||
10:42 12mTalk | JavaScript Dead Code Identification, Elimination, and Empirical Assessment Journal-first Papers Ivano Malavolta Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Kishan Nirghin Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Gian Luca Scoccia Gran Sasso Science Institute, Simone Romano University of Salerno, Salvatore Lombardi University of Basilicata, Giuseppe Scanniello University of Salerno, Patricia Lago Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam File Attached | ||
10:54 12mTalk | PTdetector: An Automated JavaScript Front-end Library Detector Research Papers Link to publication | ||
11:06 12mTalk | Revealing Performance Issues in Server-side WebAssembly Runtimes via Differential Testing Research Papers Shuyao Jiang The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ruiying Zeng Fudan University, Zihao Rao Fudan University, Jiazhen Gu Chinese University of Hong Kong, Yangfan Zhou Fudan University, Michael Lyu The Chinese University of Hong Kong Pre-print | ||
11:18 12mTalk | Dramatically Improving Design Reviews at Google Industry Showcase (Papers) Link to publication | ||
11:30 12mTalk | Characterizing Flaky Tests in Node.js ApplicationsRecorded talk NIER Track Xiaoning Chang Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zheheng Liang Joint Laboratory on Cyberspace Security of China Southern Power Grid, Guoquan Wu Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing College; China Southern Power Grid, Yu Gao Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Wei Chen Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing College, Jun Wei Institute of Software at Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Chongqing School, Zhenyue Long , Lei Cui Joint Laboratory on Cyberspace Security of China Southern Power Grid, Tao Huang Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Media Attached |