stream-nagle

Reduce your websocket package count

Wait for time to pass or a threshold to be met before sending data

Why

Although not directly obvious, any socket or stream within a node environment (including websockets) are streams which may pass through numerous systems implementing all kinds of packet switching and stream-packet conversions like networks, proxies, etc. This package buffers data until there is enough to send or a time window has passed, to send less packages with more data. Sending less packages reduces network traffic & improves context switching (whether within the OS, javascript engine or otherwise), resulting in a better overall experience or lower cost to host.

This isn't nagle

True, this package only implements behavior to emulate like nagle's algorithm. The actual nagle algorithm waited for it's threshold to be met or an acknowledgement of the previous package by the receiving peer (which is not possible in a 1-way stream within javascript).

Installation

npm install --save stream-nagle

Usage

stream-nagle does NOT modify the data going through a pipe, only at which times & the amount of bytes. In the background, through is used to handle streams.

You can use an instance of stream-nagle as if it were a pass-through stream.

Initialization:

const nagle = require('stream-nagle');

// Initialize the stream
// Shown are the default options
let nagleStream = nagle({
  aggressive: false, // Whether to reset the timer on an incoming packet
  mtu       : 2048,  // Max outgoing package size in bytes & transmission threshold
  wait      :  200,  // Milliseconds to wait for another package
  burst     : true,  // Empty the whole buffer on sending
});

Application:

/** @var {WebsocketServer} ws */
ws.on('connection', function(client) {
  /** @var {WebsocketStream} client */
  let randomStream = fs.createReadStream('/dev/random');
  randomStream.pipe(nagle()).pipe(client);
});