PHP transfer data between 2 remote servers, what is fastest way?

Question

I have Server A and Server B which exchanges some data. Server A on user request pull data from Server B using simple file_get_content with some params, so server B can do all task(database etc) and return results to A which formats and show to user. Everything is in PHP.

Now I am interested what is fastest way to to this? I made some test and average transfer time for average response from server B at (~0.2 sec). In that 0.2 sec, 0.1 sec. aprox. is Server B operational time (pulling data calling few databases etc) what mean that average transfer time for 50kb with is 0.1 sec. (servers are NOT in same network)

Should I try with:

1. cURL insted of file_get_content ?
2. Or to try to make whole thing with sockets( I never work work with sockets in PHP but I supose that easily can be done, on that way to skip web server )
3. or something third?

I think that time can be 'found' on shortening connection establishing, since now, every request is new connection initiating (I mean on separate file_get_content calls, or I am wrong?)

Please give me your advices in which directions to try, or if you have some better solution I am listening.

Answer 1

Curl :

function curl($url)
{
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6");
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 60);
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $result = curl_exec ($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $result;
}

Sockets:

function sockets($host) {
$fp = fsockopen("www.".$host, 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
  $out = "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n";
  $out .= "Host: www.".$host."\r\n";
  $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
  fwrite($fp, $out);
  $f='';
  while (!feof($fp)) {
    $f .= fgets($fp, 1024);
  }
return $f;
}

file_get_contents

 function fgc($url){
       return file_get_contents($url);
    }

Multicurl

function multiRequest($data,$nobody=false,$options = array(), $oneoptions = array())
{
    $curls = array();
    $result = array();
    $mh = curl_multi_init();
    foreach ($data as $id => $d)
    {
        $curls[$id] = curl_init();
        $url = (is_array($d) && !empty($d['url'])) ? $d['url'] : $d;
        curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_URL,            $url);
        curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_HEADER,         0);
        curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,1);
        curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_USERAGENT,"Mozilla/5.0(Windows;U;WindowsNT5.1;ru;rv:1.9.0.4)Gecko/2008102920AdCentriaIM/1.7Firefox/3.0.4");
        //curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR,'cookies.txt');
        //curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE,'cookies.txt');
        //curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_NOBODY, $nobody);

        if (!empty($options))
        {
            curl_setopt_array($curls[$id], $options);
        }
        if (!empty($oneoptions[$id]))
        {
            curl_setopt_array($curls[$id], $oneoptions[$id]);
        }
        if (is_array($d))
        {
            if (!empty($d['post']))
            {

                curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_POST,       1);
                curl_setopt($curls[$id], CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $d['post']);
            }
        }
        curl_multi_add_handle($mh, $curls[$id]);
    }
    $running = null;
    do
    {
        curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);
    }
    while($running > 0);
    foreach($curls as $id => $content)
    {
        $result[$id] = curl_multi_getcontent($content);
        //echo curl_multi_getcontent($content);
        curl_multi_remove_handle($mh, $content);
    }
    curl_multi_close($mh);
    return $result;
}

Tests:

$url = 'example.com';
$start = microtime(1);
for($i=0;$i<100;$i++)
curl($url);
$end = microtime(1);
echo "Curl:".($end-$start)."\n";

$start = microtime(1);
for($i=0;$i<100;$i++)
fgc("http://$url/");
$end = microtime(1);
echo "file_get_contents:".($end-$start)."\n";

$start = microtime(1);
for($i=0;$i<100;$i++)
sockets($url);
$end = microtime(1);
echo "Sockets:".($end-$start)."\n";

$start = microtime(1);
for($i=0;$i<100;$i++)
$arr[]=$url;
multiRequest($arr);
$end = microtime(1);
echo "MultiCurl:".($end-$start)."\n";
?>

Results :

• Curl: 5.39667105675
  file_get_contents: 7.99799394608
  Sockets: 2.99629592896
  MultiCurl: 0.736907958984
  

Answer 2

what is fastest way?

get your data on a flash drive.

Now seriously.
Come on, it's network that's slow . You cannot make it faster.
To make server A response faster, DO NOT request data from the server B. That's the only way.
You can replicate your data or cache it, or just quit such a clumsy setup at all.
But as long as you have to make a network lookup on each user' request, it WILL be slow. Despite of the method you are using. It is not hte method, it is media. Isn't it obvious?

Answer 3

You can try another different approach: Mount the remote filesystem in the local machine. You can do that with sshfs , so you will get the additional security of an encripted connection.

It may be even more efficient since php will not have to deal with connection negotiation and establishment.