Throttling method calls to M requests in N seconds

Question

I need a component/class that throttles execution of some method to maximum M calls in N seconds (or ms or nanos, does not matter).

In other words I need to make sure that my method is executed no more than M times in a sliding window of N seconds.

If you don't know existing class feel free to post your solutions/ideas how you would implement this.

Answer 1

Here is a little advanced version of simple rate limiter

/**
 * Simple request limiter based on Thread.sleep method.
 * Create limiter instance via {@link #create(float)} and call {@link #consume()} before making any request.
 * If the limit is exceeded cosume method locks and waits for current call rate to fall down below the limit
 */
public class RequestRateLimiter {

    private long minTime;

    private long lastSchedAction;
    private double avgSpent = 0;

    ArrayList<RatePeriod> periods;


    @AllArgsConstructor
    public static class RatePeriod{

        @Getter
        private LocalTime start;

        @Getter
        private LocalTime end;

        @Getter
        private float maxRate;
    }


    /**
     * Create request limiter with maxRate - maximum number of requests per second
     * @param maxRate - maximum number of requests per second
     * @return
     */
    public static RequestRateLimiter create(float maxRate){
        return new RequestRateLimiter(Arrays.asList( new RatePeriod(LocalTime.of(0,0,0),
                LocalTime.of(23,59,59), maxRate)));
    }

    /**
     * Create request limiter with ratePeriods calendar - maximum number of requests per second in every period
     * @param ratePeriods - rate calendar
     * @return
     */
    public static RequestRateLimiter create(List<RatePeriod> ratePeriods){
        return new RequestRateLimiter(ratePeriods);
    }

    private void checkArgs(List<RatePeriod> ratePeriods){

        for (RatePeriod rp: ratePeriods ){
            if ( null == rp || rp.maxRate <= 0.0f || null == rp.start || null == rp.end )
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("list contains null or rate is less then zero or period is zero length");
        }
    }

    private float getCurrentRate(){

        LocalTime now = LocalTime.now();

        for (RatePeriod rp: periods){
            if ( now.isAfter( rp.start ) && now.isBefore( rp.end ) )
                return rp.maxRate;
        }

        return Float.MAX_VALUE;
    }



    private RequestRateLimiter(List<RatePeriod> ratePeriods){

        checkArgs(ratePeriods);
        periods = new ArrayList<>(ratePeriods.size());
        periods.addAll(ratePeriods);

        this.minTime = (long)(1000.0f / getCurrentRate());
        this.lastSchedAction = System.currentTimeMillis() - minTime;
    }

    /**
     * Call this method before making actual request.
     * Method call locks until current rate falls down below the limit
     * @throws InterruptedException
     */
    public void consume() throws InterruptedException {

        long timeLeft;

        synchronized(this) {
            long curTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

            minTime = (long)(1000.0f / getCurrentRate());
            timeLeft = lastSchedAction + minTime - curTime;

            long timeSpent = curTime - lastSchedAction + timeLeft;
            avgSpent = (avgSpent + timeSpent) / 2;

            if(timeLeft <= 0) {
                lastSchedAction = curTime;
                return;
            }

            lastSchedAction = curTime + timeLeft;
        }

        Thread.sleep(timeLeft);
    }

    public synchronized float getCuRate(){
        return (float) ( 1000d / avgSpent);
    }
}

And unit tests

import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.Future;

public class RequestRateLimiterTest {


    @Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException.class)
    public void checkSingleThreadZeroRate(){

        // Zero rate
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(0);
        try {
            limiter.consume();
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    @Test
    public void checkSingleThreadUnlimitedRate(){

        // Unlimited
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(Float.MAX_VALUE);

        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for ( int i = 0; i < 1000; i++ ){

            try {
                limiter.consume();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( ((ended - started) < 1000));
    }

    @Test
    public void rcheckSingleThreadRate(){

        // 3 request per minute
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(3f/60f);

        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for ( int i = 0; i < 3; i++ ){

            try {
                limiter.consume();
                Thread.sleep(20000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();

        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( ((ended - started) >= 60000 ) & ((ended - started) < 61000));
    }



    @Test
    public void checkSingleThreadRateLimit(){

        // 100 request per second
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(100);

        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for ( int i = 0; i < 1000; i++ ){

            try {
                limiter.consume();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();

        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( (ended - started) >= ( 10000 - 100 ));
    }

    @Test
    public void checkMultiThreadedRateLimit(){

        // 100 request per second
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(100);
        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();

        List<Future<?>> tasks = new ArrayList<>(10);
        ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);

        for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) {

            tasks.add( exec.submit(() -> {
                for (int i1 = 0; i1 < 100; i1++) {

                    try {
                        limiter.consume();
                    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }) );
        }

        tasks.stream().forEach( future -> {
            try {
                future.get();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (ExecutionException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        });

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( (ended - started) >= ( 10000 - 100 ) );
    }

    @Test
    public void checkMultiThreaded32RateLimit(){

        // 0,2 request per second
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(0.2f);
        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();

        List<Future<?>> tasks = new ArrayList<>(8);
        ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(8);

        for ( int i = 0; i < 8; i++ ) {

            tasks.add( exec.submit(() -> {
                for (int i1 = 0; i1 < 2; i1++) {

                    try {
                        limiter.consume();
                    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }) );
        }

        tasks.stream().forEach( future -> {
            try {
                future.get();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (ExecutionException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        });

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( (ended - started) >= ( 10000 - 100 ) );
    }

    @Test
    public void checkMultiThreadedRateLimitDynamicRate(){

        // 100 request per second
        RequestRateLimiter limiter = RequestRateLimiter.create(100);
        long started = System.currentTimeMillis();

        List<Future<?>> tasks = new ArrayList<>(10);
        ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);

        for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) {

            tasks.add( exec.submit(() -> {

                Random r = new Random();
                for (int i1 = 0; i1 < 100; i1++) {

                    try {
                        limiter.consume();
                        Thread.sleep(r.nextInt(1000));
                    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }) );
        }

        tasks.stream().forEach( future -> {
            try {
                future.get();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (ExecutionException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        });

        long ended = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println( "Current rate:" + limiter.getCurRate() );
        Assert.assertTrue( (ended - started) >= ( 10000 - 100 ) );
    }

}

Answer 2

I'd use a ring buffer of timestamps with a fixed size of M. Each time the method is called, you check the oldest entry, and if it's less than N seconds in the past, you execute and add another entry, otherwise you sleep for the time difference.

Answer 3

The original question sounds a lot like the problem solved in this blog post: Java Multi-Channel Asynchronous Throttler.

For a rate of M calls in N seconds, the throttler discussed in this blog guarantees that any interval of length N on the timeline will not contain more than M calls.

Answer 4

I have implemented a simple throttling algorithm.Try this link, http://krishnaprasadas.blogspot.in/2012/05/throttling-algorithm.html

A brief about the Algorithm,

This algorithm utilizes the capability of Java Delayed Queue. Create a delayed object with the expected delay (here 1000/M for millisecond TimeUnit). Put the same object into the delayed queue which will intern provides the moving window for us. Then before each method call take the object form the queue, take is a blocking call which will return only after the specified delay, and after the method call don't forget to put the object into the queue with updated time(here current milliseconds).

Here we can also have multiple delayed objects with different delay. This approach will also provide high throughput.

Answer 5

What worked out of the box for me was Google Guava RateLimiter.

// Allow one request per second
private RateLimiter throttle = RateLimiter.create(1.0);

private void someMethod() {
    throttle.acquire();
    // Do something
}

Answer 6

Apache Camel also supports comes with Throttler mechanism as follows:

from("seda:a").throttle(100).asyncDelayed().to("seda:b");