nodelay

The nodelay property affects Nagle’s algorithm (the value of the TCP_NODELAY socket-level option on TCP/IP) for the given protocol. Nagle’s algorithm is used to improve TCP performance on systems using slow connections such as wide-area networks (WANs).

When the algorithm is used, TCP tries to prevent several small chunks of data from being sent to the remote system (by bundling the data in larger packets). If the data written to the socket does not fill the required buffer size, the protocol delays sending the packet until either the buffer is filled or a specific delay time has elapsed. Once the buffer is full or the timeout has occurred, the packet is sent.

For most messaging applications, performance is best if there is no delay in the sending of packets (Nagle’s algorithm is not enabled). This is because most interactions between client and broker are request/response interactions: the client sends a packet of data to the broker and waits for a response. For example, typical interactions include:

• Creating a connection

• Creating a producer or consumer

• Sending a persistent message (the broker confirms receipt of the message)

• Sending a client acknowledgment in an AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE or CLIENT_ACKNOWLEDGE session (the broker confirms processing of the acknowledgment)

For these interactions, most packets are smaller than the buffer size. This means that if Nagle’s algorithm is used, the broker delays several milliseconds before sending a response to the consumer.

However, Nagle’s algorithm may improve performance in situations where connections are slow and broker responses are not required. This would be the case where a client sends a nonpersistent message or where a client acknowledgment is not confirmed by the broker (DUPS_OK_ACKNOWLEDGE session).