Re: [boost] [asio] Randomly having problems reading from the socket

Subject: Re: [boost] [asio] Randomly having problems reading from the socket
From: Cliff Green (cliffg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-05-05 10:30:18

The symptoms you describe, based on the code you included in your first 
e-mail, seems to point to a simple and straightforward problem - you're 
running into TCP flow control blockage. This is a traditional TCP problem 
and is not directly related to Asio.

Anytime you're sending data as fast as possible, and the receiving side is 
just slightly slower at receiving the data, send buffers in the OS will fill 
up. Eventually this will result in the send being blocked for a short period 
of time while the receiving side processes the data. If you're using 
blocking writes, the send will block for a period of time. If you're using 
async writes, the write completion handler will take longer before it is 
called (which is why I greatly prefer async operations all around).

That the problem is transitory and takes a while to manifest is another 
clue - it depends totally on how fast the sending and receiving applications 
are running, and if there's a short period on the receiving side where the 
app can't run as fast (e.g. another app takes up some processing time), the 
blockage will be transitory.

Cliff