Authors:
Anas Shatnawi
;
Adem Bahri
;
Boubou Thiam Niang
and
Benoit Verhaeghe
Affiliation:
Berger-Levrault, Mauguio, France
Keyword(s):
REST Services, Data Serialization, JSON, Protocol Buffers, Software Transformation, Migration.
Abstract:
Data serialization efficiency is crucial for optimizing web application performance. JSON is widely used due to its compatibility with REST services, but its text-based format often introduces performance limitations. As web applications grow more complex and distributed, the need for more efficient serialization methods becomes evident. Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) has demonstrated significant improvements in reducing payload size and enhancing serialization/deserialization speed compared to JSON. To improve the performance and optimize resource utilization of existing web applications, the JSON data serialization approach of their REST services should be migrated to Protobuf. Existing migration approaches emphasize manual processes, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. In this paper, we propose a semi-automated approach to migrating the data serialization of existing REST services from JSON to Protobuf. Our approach refactors existing REST codebases to use Protobuf. It is ev
aluated on two web applications. The results show a reduction in payload size by 60% to 80%, leading to an 80% improvement in response time, a 17% decrease in CPU utilization, and an 18% reduction in energy consumption, all with no additional memory overhead.
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