Understanding and Reducing Web Delays

Different Internet sites have different performance characteristics. One of the most important characteristics that a regular Internet user readily notices is the vast performance differences between them. Research on web sites and its effects on users shows that the amount of time it takes for a web page to load is a significant factor on the success/failure of a web site. Slow performances cost e-commerce sites millions of dollars every year. Hence it is critical to identify the sources of performance bottlenecks associated with web content presentation. In this paper, the authors attempt to identify where such bottlenecks could occur and how to avoid or improve them without modifying the existing infrastructure. In order to identify the problems with the current implementations, it is very important to have a thorough understanding of the things that take place in the background when a web page is requested. This paper takes a detailed look at the processes that are taking place when a page is requested including IP address resolution, making a connection to the source, requesting different web elements and generation of dynamic web contents. It then tries to identify where performance bottlenecks could occur and how the existing technologies can be used to improve them. Finally the paper discusses the things and strategies that the content developer should have been aware of when developing or hosting sites, if he/she needs to have a web site with high performance