Database Administrator's Guide

Communication Protocol

The FairCom Server supports many communication protocols in addition to many operating system/hardware combinations. Typically, the largest I/O bottleneck with the client/server model is the communications between the server and the clients. Choosing the best suited communication protocol for the database server can play a crucial role in the client side response times. Due to all the variables affecting response times, (record size, quantity of records, number of users, network traffic, speed of the network cards . . .), it is impossible to provide an absolute guideline for which protocol to use. The best way to determine the optimal protocol for a particular platform is to conduct time trials with the available protocols. However, as a rule, the platform’s protocols will typically be the fastest.

It is possible for users to use the FairCom Server across WANs of varying distances. The performance in this case depends upon several factors such as:

• Record size
• Type of operations being performed
• Distance
• Delay
• Number of different routers and switches it must go through

Other delays that are added to the travel from point A to point B are caused by such things as congestion, mismatched MTUs (Maximum Transmission Units), or other physical issues. These result in an increase in time to send a request to the server and also to receive the resulting message.

In order to minimize such delays, consider the points below:

• Set your machine to the optimal MTU to reduce packet fragmentation as the message passes through various routers.
• Within your application, you can improve performance by using BATCHES where possible to process multiple records.
• Avoid mismatched MTU sizes on different routers and switches since this can cause packet fragmentation adding significant delays to the delivery of the message.