Introduce ChannelExecutor

docs/articles/actors/dispatchers.md

@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Some dispatcher configurations are available out-of-the-box for convenience. You
 * **task-dispatcher** - A configuration that uses the [TaskDispatcher](#taskdispatcher).
 * **default-fork-join-dispatcher** - A configuration that uses the [ForkJoinDispatcher](#forkjoindispatcher).
 * **synchronized-dispatcher** - A configuration that uses the [SynchronizedDispatcher](#synchronizeddispatcher).
+* **channel-executor** - new as of v1.4.19, the [`ChannelExecutor`](#channelexecutor) is used to run on top of the .NET `ThreadPool` and allow Akka.NET to dynamically scale thread usage up and down with demand in exchange for better CPU and throughput performance.
 
 ## Built-in Dispatchers
 
@@ -165,6 +166,63 @@ private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
 }
 ```
 
+### `ChannelExecutor`
+In Akka.NET v1.4.19 we will be introducing an opt-in feature, the `ChannelExecutor` - a new dispatcher type that re-uses the same configuration as a `ForkJoinDispatcher` but runs entirely on top of the .NET `ThreadPool` and is able to take advantage of dynamic thread pool scaling to size / resize workloads on the fly.
+
+During its initial development and benchmarks, we observed the following:
+
+1. The `ChannelExecutor` tremendously reduced idle CPU and max busy CPU even during peak message throughput, primarily as a result of dynamically shrinking the total `ThreadPool` to only the necessary size. This resolves one of the largest complaints large users of Akka.NET have today. However, **in order for this setting to be effective `ThreadPool.SetMin(0,0)` must also be set**. We are considering doing this inside the `ActorSystem.Create` method, those settings don't work for you you can easily override them by simply calling `ThreadPool.SetMin(yourValue, yourValue)` again after `ActorSystem.Create` has exited.
+2. The `ChannelExecutor` actually beat the `ForkJoinDispatcher` and others on performance even in environments like Docker and bare metal on Windows.
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> We are in the process of gathering data from users on how well `ChannelExecutor` performs in the real world. If you are interested in trying out the `ChannelExecutor`, please read the directions in this document and then comment on [the "Akka.NET v1.4.19: ChannelExecutor performance data" discussion thread](https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/discussions/4983).
+
+The `ChannelExectuor` re-uses the same threading settings as the `ForkJoinExecutor` to determine its effective upper and lower parallelism limits, and you can configure the `ChannelExecutor` to run inside your `ActorSystem` via the following HOCON configuration:
+
+```
+akka.actor.default-dispatcher = {
+    executor = channel-executor
+    fork-join-executor { #channelexecutor will re-use these settings
+      parallelism-min = 2
+      parallelism-factor = 1
+      parallelism-max = 64
+    }
+}
+
+akka.actor.internal-dispatcher = {
+    executor = channel-executor
+    throughput = 5
+    fork-join-executor {
+      parallelism-min = 4
+      parallelism-factor = 1.0
+      parallelism-max = 64
+    }
+}
+
+akka.remote.default-remote-dispatcher {
+    type = Dispatcher
+    executor = channel-executor
+    fork-join-executor {
+      parallelism-min = 2
+      parallelism-factor = 0.5
+      parallelism-max = 16
+    }
+}
+
+akka.remote.backoff-remote-dispatcher {
+  executor = channel-executor
+  fork-join-executor {
+    parallelism-min = 2
+    parallelism-max = 2
+  }
+}
+```
+
+This will enable the `ChannelExecutor` to run everywhere and all Akka.NET loads, with the exception of anything you manually allocate onto a `ForkJoinDispatcher` or `PinnedDispatcher`, will be managed by the `ThreadPool`.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> As of Akka.NET v1.4.19, we call `ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(0,0)` inside the `ActorSystem.Create` method as we've found that the default `ThreadPool` minimum values have a negative impact on performance. However, if this causes undesireable side effects for you inside your application you can always override those settings by calling `ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(yourValue, yourValue)` again after you've created your `ActorSystem`.
+
 #### Common Dispatcher Configuration
 
 The following configuration keys are available for any dispatcher configuration:

src/benchmark/Akka.Benchmarks/Actor/PingPongBenchmarks.cs

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Akka.Actor;
 using Akka.Benchmarks.Configurations;
+using Akka.Configuration;
 using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;
 using BenchmarkDotNet.Engines;
 

src/benchmark/RemotePingPong/Program.cs

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ public static uint CpuSpeed()
         public static Config CreateActorSystemConfig(string actorSystemName, string ipOrHostname, int port)
         {
             var baseConfig = ConfigurationFactory.ParseString(@"
-                akka {
+            akka {
               actor.provider = remote
               loglevel = ERROR
               suppress-json-serializer-warning = on
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ public static Config CreateActorSystemConfig(string actorSystemName, string ipOr
                     port = 0
                     hostname = ""localhost""
                 }
+
               }
             }");
 

src/core/Akka.Cluster.Tests.MultiNode/StressSpec.cs

@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ public StressSpecConfig()
       convergence-within-factor = 1.0
     }
     akka.actor.provider = cluster
+
     akka.cluster {
       failure-detector.acceptable-heartbeat-pause = 3s
       downing-provider-class = ""Akka.Cluster.SplitBrainResolver, Akka.Cluster""
@@ -86,10 +87,29 @@ public StressSpecConfig()
     akka.loggers = [""Akka.TestKit.TestEventListener, Akka.TestKit""]
             akka.loglevel = INFO
             akka.remote.log-remote-lifecycle-events = off
-            akka.actor.default-dispatcher.fork-join-executor {
-                parallelism - min = 8
-                parallelism - max = 8
+            akka.actor.default-dispatcher = {
+                executor = channel-executor
+              fork-join-executor {
+                parallelism-min = 2
+                parallelism-factor = 1
+                parallelism-max = 64
+              }
             }
+            akka.actor.internal-dispatcher = {
+              executor = channel-executor
+              fork-join-executor {
+                parallelism-min = 2
+                parallelism-factor = 1
+                parallelism-max = 64
+              }
+            }
+akka.remote.default-remote-dispatcher {
+	  executor = channel-executor
+      fork-join-executor {
+        parallelism-min = 2
+        parallelism-factor = 0.5
+        parallelism-max = 16
+      }
             ");
 
             TestTransport = true;

src/core/Akka.Remote/Configuration/Remote.conf

@@ -578,23 +578,20 @@ akka {
 
     ### Default dispatcher for the remoting subsystem
 
-    ### Default dispatcher for the remoting subsystem
-
     default-remote-dispatcher {
-      type = ForkJoinDispatcher
-	  executor = fork-join-executor
-      dedicated-thread-pool {
-        # Fixed number of threads to have in this threadpool
-        thread-count = 4
+	    executor = fork-join-executor
+      fork-join-executor {
+        parallelism-min = 2
+        parallelism-factor = 0.5
+        parallelism-max = 16
       }
     }
 
     backoff-remote-dispatcher {
-      type = ForkJoinDispatcher
-	  executor = fork-join-executor
-      dedicated-thread-pool {
-        # Fixed number of threads to have in this threadpool
-        thread-count = 4
+	    executor = fork-join-executor
+      fork-join-executor {
+        parallelism-min = 2
+        parallelism-max = 2
       }
     }
   }

src/core/Akka.Tests.Performance/Dispatch/ForkJoinDispatcherThroughputSpec.cs

@@ -45,4 +45,17 @@ protected override MessageDispatcherConfigurator Configurator()
             return new DispatcherConfigurator(DispatcherConfiguration, Prereqs);
         }
     }
+
+    public class ChannelDispatcherExecutorThroughputSpec : WarmDispatcherThroughputSpecBase
+    {
+        public static Config DispatcherConfiguration => ConfigurationFactory.ParseString(@"
+                    id = PerfTest
+                    executor = channel-executor
+        ");
+
+        protected override MessageDispatcherConfigurator Configurator()
+        {
+            return new DispatcherConfigurator(DispatcherConfiguration, Prereqs);
+        }
+    }
 }

src/core/Akka/Actor/ActorSystem.cs

@@ -278,6 +278,10 @@ public static ActorSystem Create(string name)
 
         private static ActorSystem CreateAndStartSystem(string name, Config withFallback, ActorSystemSetup setup)
         {
+            // allows the ThreadPool to scale up / down dynamically
+            // by removing minimum thread count, which in our benchmarks
+            // appears to negatively impact performance
+            ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(0, 0); 
             var system = new ActorSystemImpl(name, withFallback, setup, Option<Props>.None);
             system.Start();
             return system;

src/core/Akka/Akka.csproj

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
   <ItemGroup>
       <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="$(NewtonsoftJsonVersion)" />
-    <PackageReference Include="System.Collections.Immutable" Version="5.0.0" />
+      <PackageReference Include="System.Collections.Immutable" Version="5.0.0" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
   <ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == '$(NetStandardLibVersion)'">

src/core/Akka/Dispatch/AbstractDispatcher.cs

@@ -116,6 +116,26 @@ protected ExecutorServiceConfigurator(Config config, IDispatcherPrerequisites pr
         public IDispatcherPrerequisites Prerequisites { get; private set; }
     }
 
+    internal sealed class ChannelExecutorConfigurator : ExecutorServiceConfigurator
+    {
+        public ChannelExecutorConfigurator(Config config, IDispatcherPrerequisites prerequisites) : base(config, prerequisites)
+        {
+            var fje = config.GetConfig("fork-join-executor");
+            MaxParallelism = ThreadPoolConfig.ScaledPoolSize(
+                        fje.GetInt("parallelism-min"), 
+                        fje.GetDouble("parallelism-factor", 1.0D), // the scalar-based factor to scale the threadpool size to 
+                        fje.GetInt("parallelism-max"));
+        }
+
+        public int MaxParallelism {get;}
+
+        public override ExecutorService Produce(string id)
+        {
+            Prerequisites.EventStream.Publish(new Debug($"ChannelExecutor-[id]", typeof(FixedConcurrencyTaskScheduler), $"Launched Dispatcher [{id}] with MaxParallelism=[{MaxParallelism}]"));
+            return new TaskSchedulerExecutor(id, new FixedConcurrencyTaskScheduler(MaxParallelism));
+        }
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// INTERNAL API
     /// 
@@ -306,6 +326,8 @@ protected ExecutorServiceConfigurator ConfigureExecutor()
                     return new CurrentSynchronizationContextExecutorServiceFactory(Config, Prerequisites);
                 case "task-executor":
                     return new DefaultTaskSchedulerExecutorConfigurator(Config, Prerequisites);
+                case "channel-executor":
+                    return new ChannelExecutorConfigurator(Config, Prerequisites);
                 default:
                     Type executorConfiguratorType = Type.GetType(executor);
                     if (executorConfiguratorType == null)

src/core/Akka/Dispatch/Dispatchers.cs

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 using System;
 using System.Collections.Concurrent;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Threading;
 using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Akka.Actor;
@@ -91,6 +92,86 @@ public PartialTrustThreadPoolExecutorService(string id) : base(id)
         }
     }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// INTERNAL API
+    ///
+    /// Used to power <see cref="ChannelExecutorConfigurator"/>
+    /// </summary>
+    internal sealed class FixedConcurrencyTaskScheduler : TaskScheduler
+    {
+
+        [ThreadStatic]
+        private static bool _threadRunning = false;
+        private ConcurrentQueue<Task> _tasks = new ConcurrentQueue<Task>();
+
+        private int _readers = 0;
+
+        public FixedConcurrencyTaskScheduler(int degreeOfParallelism)
+        {
+            MaximumConcurrencyLevel = degreeOfParallelism;
+        }
+
+
+        public override int MaximumConcurrencyLevel { get; }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// ONLY USED IN DEBUGGER - NO PERF IMPACT.
+        /// </summary>
+        protected override IEnumerable<Task> GetScheduledTasks()
+        {
+            return _tasks;
+        }
+
+        protected override bool TryDequeue(Task task)
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        protected override void QueueTask(Task task)
+        {
+            _tasks.Enqueue(task);
+            if (_readers < MaximumConcurrencyLevel)
+            {
+                var initial = _readers;
+                var newVale = _readers + 1;
+                if (initial == Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _readers, newVale, initial))
+                {
+                    // try to start a new worker
+                    ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(_ => ReadChannel(), null);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        protected override bool TryExecuteTaskInline(Task task, bool taskWasPreviouslyQueued)
+        {
+            // If this thread isn't already processing a task, we don't support inlining
+            if (!_threadRunning) return false;
+            return TryExecuteTask(task);
+        }
+
+        public void ReadChannel()
+        {
+            _threadRunning = true;
+            try
+            {
+                while (_tasks.TryDequeue(out var runnable))
+                {
+                    base.TryExecuteTask(runnable);
+                }
+            }
+            catch
+            {
+                // suppress exceptions
+            }
+            finally
+            {
+                Interlocked.Decrement(ref _readers);
+
+                _threadRunning = false;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
 
     /// <summary>
     /// INTERNAL API
@@ -273,7 +354,7 @@ public MessageDispatcher DefaultGlobalDispatcher
         internal MessageDispatcher InternalDispatcher { get; }
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// The <see cref="Hocon.Config"/> for the default dispatcher.
+        /// The <see cref="Configuration.Config"/> for the default dispatcher.
         /// </summary>
         public Config DefaultDispatcherConfig
         {
@@ -336,7 +417,7 @@ public bool HasDispatcher(string id)
         private MessageDispatcherConfigurator LookupConfigurator(string id)
         {
             var depth = 0;
-            while(depth < MaxDispatcherAliasDepth)
+            while (depth < MaxDispatcherAliasDepth)
             {
                 if (_dispatcherConfigurators.TryGetValue(id, out var configurator))
                     return configurator;
@@ -374,7 +455,7 @@ private MessageDispatcherConfigurator LookupConfigurator(string id)
         /// <summary>
         /// INTERNAL API
         /// 
-        /// Creates a dispatcher from a <see cref="Hocon.Config"/>. Internal test purpose only.
+        /// Creates a dispatcher from a <see cref="Configuration.Config"/>. Internal test purpose only.
         /// <code>
         /// From(Config.GetConfig(id));
         /// </code>