File Operations using Akka Actor

Question

What is the advantage using Akka Actor over normal File operation method?. I tried to calculate the time taken to analyze a log file. The operation is to find the IP addresses which have logged on more than 50 times and display them. Normal file operation was faster when compared to Akka Actor model. Why so?

Using normal file operation

public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        //long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        File file = new File("log.txt");
        Map<String, Long> ipMap = new HashMap<>();

        try {

                FileReader fr = new FileReader(file);
                BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);
                String line = br.readLine();

                while(line!=null) {
                    int idx = line.indexOf('-');
                    String ipAddress = line.substring(0, idx).trim();
                    long count = ipMap.getOrDefault(ipAddress, 0L);
                    ipMap.put(ipAddress, ++count);
                    line = br.readLine();
                }

                 System.out.println("================================");
                 System.out.println("||\tCount\t||\t\tIP");
                 System.out.println("================================");

                 fr.close();
                 br.close();
                 Map<String, Long> result = new HashMap<>();

                    // Sort by value and put it into the "result" map
                    ipMap.entrySet().stream()
                            .sorted(Map.Entry.<String, Long>comparingByValue().reversed())
                            .forEachOrdered(x -> result.put(x.getKey(), x.getValue()));

                    // Print only if count > 50
                    result.entrySet().stream().filter(entry -> entry.getValue() > 50).forEach(entry ->
                        System.out.println("||\t" + entry.getValue() + "   \t||\t" + entry.getKey())
                    );

//                  long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
//                  System.out.println("Time: "+(endTime-startTime));

            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

    }

Using Actors:
1. The Main Class
 public static void main(String[] args) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        // Create actorSystem
        ActorSystem akkaSystem = ActorSystem.create("akkaSystem");

        // Create first actor based on the specified class
        ActorRef coordinator = akkaSystem.actorOf(Props.create(FileAnalysisActor.class));

        // Create a message including the file path
        FileAnalysisMessage msg = new FileAnalysisMessage("log.txt");

        // Send a message to start processing the file. This is a synchronous call using 'ask' with a timeout.
        Timeout timeout = new Timeout(6, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        Future<Object> future = Patterns.ask(coordinator, msg, timeout);

        // Process the results
        final ExecutionContext ec = akkaSystem.dispatcher();
        future.onSuccess(new OnSuccess<Object>() {
            @Override
            public void onSuccess(Object message) throws Throwable {
                if (message instanceof FileProcessedMessage) {
                    printResults((FileProcessedMessage) message);

                    // Stop the actor system
                    akkaSystem.shutdown();
                }
            }

            private void printResults(FileProcessedMessage message) {
                System.out.println("================================");
                System.out.println("||\tCount\t||\t\tIP");
                System.out.println("================================");

                Map<String, Long> result = new LinkedHashMap<>();

                // Sort by value and put it into the "result" map
                message.getData().entrySet().stream()
                        .sorted(Map.Entry.<String, Long>comparingByValue().reversed())
                        .forEachOrdered(x -> result.put(x.getKey(), x.getValue())); 

                // Print only if count > 50
                result.entrySet().stream().filter(entry -> entry.getValue() > 50).forEach(entry ->
                    System.out.println("||\t" + entry.getValue() + "   \t||\t" + entry.getKey())
                );
                long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
                System.out.println("Total time: "+(endTime - startTime));
            }

        }, ec);

    }

2.File Analyser Class

public class FileAnalysisActor extends UntypedActor {

    private Map<String, Long> ipMap = new HashMap<>();
    private long fileLineCount;
    private long processedCount;
    private ActorRef analyticsSender = null;

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Object message) throws Exception {
        /*
            This actor can receive two different messages, FileAnalysisMessage or LineProcessingResult, any
            other type will be discarded using the unhandled method
         */
            //System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName());
        if (message instanceof FileAnalysisMessage) {

            List<String> lines = FileUtils.readLines(new File(
                    ((FileAnalysisMessage) message).getFileName()));

            fileLineCount = lines.size();
            processedCount = 0;

            // stores a reference to the original sender to send back the results later on
            analyticsSender = this.getSender();

            for (String line : lines) {
                // creates a new actor per each line of the log file
                Props props = Props.create(LogLineProcessor.class);
                ActorRef lineProcessorActor = this.getContext().actorOf(props);

                // sends a message to the new actor with the line payload
                lineProcessorActor.tell(new LogLineMessage(line), this.getSelf());
            }

        } else if (message instanceof LineProcessingResult) {

            // a result message is received after a LogLineProcessor actor has finished processing a line
            String ip = ((LineProcessingResult) message).getIpAddress();

            // increment ip counter
            Long count = ipMap.getOrDefault(ip, 0L);
            ipMap.put(ip, ++count);

            // if the file has been processed entirely, send a termination message to the main actor
            processedCount++;
            if (fileLineCount == processedCount) {
                // send done message
                analyticsSender.tell(new FileProcessedMessage(ipMap), ActorRef.noSender());
            }

        } else {
            // Ignore message
            this.unhandled(message);
        }
    }
}

3.Logline Processor Class

public class LogLineProcessor extends UntypedActor {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Object message) throws Exception {
        if (message instanceof LogLineMessage) {
            // What data each actor process?
            //System.out.println("Line: " + ((LogLineMessage) message).getData());
            // Uncomment this line to see the thread number and the actor name relationship
           //System.out.println("Thread ["+Thread.currentThread().getId()+"] handling ["+ getSelf().toString()+"]");

            // get the message payload, this will be just one line from the log file
            String messageData = ((LogLineMessage) message).getData();

            int idx = messageData.indexOf('-');
            if (idx != -1) {
                // get the ip address
                String ipAddress = messageData.substring(0, idx).trim();

                // tell the sender that we got a result using a new type of message
                this.getSender().tell(new LineProcessingResult(ipAddress), this.getSelf());
            }
        } else {
            // ignore any other message type
            this.unhandled(message);
        }
    }
}

Message Classes

1. FileAnalysis Message

   public class FileAnalysisMessage {

    private String fileName; public FileAnalysisMessage(String file) { this.fileName = file; } public String getFileName() { return fileName; } 

   }

2.File Processed Message

public class FileProcessedMessage {

    private Map<String, Long> data;

    public FileProcessedMessage(Map<String, Long> data) {
        this.data = data;
    }

    public Map<String, Long> getData() {
        return data;
    }
}

3. LineProcessing Result

   public class LineProcessingResult {

    private String ipAddress; public LineProcessingResult(String ipAddress) { this.ipAddress = ipAddress; } public String getIpAddress() { return ipAddress; } 

   }

4.Logline Message

public class LogLineMessage {

    private String data;

    public LogLineMessage(String data) {
        this.data = data;
    }

    public String getData() {
        return data;
    }
}

I am creating an actor for each line in the file.

Answer 1

With all concurrency frameworks there is always a trade-off between the amount of concurrency that is deployed vs. the complexity involved for each unit of concurrency. Akka is no exception.

In your non-akka approach you have a relatively simple sequence of steps for each line:

1. read a line from the file
2. split the line by '-'
3. submit the ip address into a hashmap & increment the count

By comparison, your akka approach is much more complicated for each line:

1. create an Actor
2. create a LogLineMessage message
3. send the message to the actor
4. split the line by '-'
5. create a LineProcessingResult message
6. send the message back to the coordinating actor
7. submit the ip address into a hashmap & increment the count

If we naively assumed each of the above steps took the same amount of time then you would need 2 threads with akka just to run at the same speed as 1 thread without akka.

Make Each Concurrency Unit Do More Work

Instead of having 1 Actor per 1 line, have each actor process N lines into its own sub-hashmap (eg each Actor processes 1000 lines):

public class LogLineMessage {

    private String[] data;

    public LogLineMessage(String[] data) {
        this.data = data;
    }

    public String[] getData() {
        return data;
    }
}

Then the Actor wouldn't be sending back something as simple as the IP address. Instead it will send a hash of counts for its subset of lines:

public class LineProcessingResult {

    private HashMap<String, Long> ipAddressCount;

    public LineProcessingResult(HashMap<String, Long> count) {
        this.ipAddressCount = Count;
    }

    public HashMap<String, Long> getIpAddress() {
        return ipAddressCount;
    }
}

And the coordinating Actor can be responsible for combining all of the various sub-counts:

//inside of FileAnalysisActor
else if (message instanceof LineProcessingResult) {
    HashMap<String,Long>  localCount = ((LineProcessingResult) message).getIpAddressCount();

    localCount.foreach((ipAddress, count) -> {
        ipMap.put(ipAddress, ipMap.getOrDefault(ipAddress, 0L) + count);
    })

You can then vary N to see where you get peak performance for your particular system.

Don't Read the Whole File Into Memory

One other disadvantage that your concurrent solution has is that it is first reading the entire file into memory. This is unnecessary and taxing for the JVM.

Instead, read the file N lines at a time. Once you have those lines in memory spawn off the Actor as mentioned earlier.

FileReader fr = new FileReader(file);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);

String[] lineBuffer;
int bufferCount = 0;
int N = 1000;

String line = br.readLine();

while(line!=null) {
    if(0 == bufferCount)
      lineBuffer = new String[N];
    else if(N == bufferCount) {
      Props props = Props.create(LogLineProcessor.class);
      ActorRef lineProcessorActor = this.getContext().actorOf(props);

      lineProcessorActor.tell(new LogLineMessage(lineBuffer),
                              this.getSelf());

      bufferCount = 0;
      continue;
    }

    lineBuffer[bufferCount] = line;
    br.readLine();
    bufferCount++;
}

//handle the final buffer
if(bufferCount > 0) {
    Props props = Props.create(LogLineProcessor.class); 
    ActorRef lineProcessorActor = this.getContext().actorOf(props);

    lineProcessorActor.tell(new LogLineMessage(lineBuffer),
                            this.getSelf());
}

This will allow for File IO, line processing, and sub-map combining to all run in parallel.