Skip to content

feat(pubsub): implement publish hedging to reduce tail latency#13735

Open
tonyyyycui wants to merge 12 commits into
googleapis:mainfrom
tonyyyycui:publish-hedging-settings
Open

feat(pubsub): implement publish hedging to reduce tail latency#13735
tonyyyycui wants to merge 12 commits into
googleapis:mainfrom
tonyyyycui:publish-hedging-settings

Conversation

@tonyyyycui

@tonyyyycui tonyyyycui commented Jul 13, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

This PR implements publish hedging in the Java Cloud Pub/Sub Publisher. Specifically, it adds support for scheduling "hedged" publish attempts when a publish call is slow to respond. A token-based method is utilized to rate-limit hedged requests and a coordinator is used to manage/cancel concurrent requests to prevent duplicate publishes.

@tonyyyycui
tonyyyycui requested review from a team as code owners July 13, 2026 17:31

@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist Bot left a comment

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Code Review

This pull request introduces a hedging mechanism for the Pub/Sub Publisher, adding HedgeSettings for configuration and a thread-safe HedgeTokenBucket to limit hedged requests. The feedback suggests replacing the synchronized methods in HedgeTokenBucket with explicit ReentrantLock to reduce lock contention and improve performance on the critical path.

Comment on lines +19 to +64
import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
import javax.annotation.concurrent.GuardedBy;

/** Token bucket for limiting hedged requests. Thread-safe. */
final class HedgeTokenBucket {
private final int maxTokens;
private final float refillAmount;

@GuardedBy("this")
private float tokens;

HedgeTokenBucket(HedgeSettings settings) {
this.maxTokens = settings.getMaxTokens();
this.refillAmount = settings.getRefill();
this.tokens = maxTokens;
}

@VisibleForTesting
HedgeTokenBucket(int maxTokens, float refillAmount) {
this.maxTokens = maxTokens;
this.refillAmount = refillAmount;
this.tokens = maxTokens;
}

/**
* Attempts to acquire a token for a hedged request.
*
* @return {@code true} if a token was acquired, {@code false} otherwise.
*/
synchronized boolean tryAcquire() {
if (tokens >= 1.0f) {
tokens -= 1.0f;
return true;
}
return false;
}

/** Refills the bucket by the configured refill amount, capped at max tokens. */
synchronized void refill() {
tokens = Math.min(maxTokens, tokens + refillAmount);
}

@VisibleForTesting
synchronized float getTokens() {
return tokens;
}

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

medium

In performance-sensitive code like the Pub/Sub Publisher, using synchronized methods on the critical path can introduce significant lock contention and performance overhead. To protect shared state while ensuring thread safety and visibility, prefer using explicit locks (such as ReentrantLock) over the synchronized keyword.

import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock;

/** Token bucket for limiting hedged requests. Thread-safe. */
final class HedgeTokenBucket {
  private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock();
  private final int maxTokens;
  private final float refillAmount;
  private float tokens;

  HedgeTokenBucket(HedgeSettings settings) {
    this.maxTokens = settings.getMaxTokens();
    this.refillAmount = settings.getRefill();
    this.tokens = maxTokens;
  }

  @VisibleForTesting
  HedgeTokenBucket(int maxTokens, float refillAmount) {
    this.maxTokens = maxTokens;
    this.refillAmount = refillAmount;
    this.tokens = maxTokens;
  }

  /**
   * Attempts to acquire a token for a hedged request.
   *
   * @return {@code true} if a token was acquired, {@code false} otherwise.
   */
  boolean tryAcquire() {
    lock.lock();
    try {
      if (tokens < 1.0f) {
        return false;
      }
      tokens -= 1.0f;
      return true;
    } finally {
      lock.unlock();
    }
  }

  /** Refills the bucket by the configured refill amount, capped at max tokens. */
  void refill() {
    lock.lock();
    try {
      tokens = Math.min((float) maxTokens, tokens + refillAmount);
    } finally {
      lock.unlock();
    }
  }

  @VisibleForTesting
  float getTokens() {
    lock.lock();
    try {
      return tokens;
    } finally {
      lock.unlock();
    }
  }
References
  1. In performance-sensitive code, prefer using explicit locks over the 'synchronized' keyword to protect shared state while ensuring thread safety and visibility.

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think this is a valid concern regarding high contention from the use of synchronized for lock synchronization in this class. I'll take a deeper look on Monday at what better options would be.

@tonyyyycui tonyyyycui changed the title Add HedgeSettings and integrate with publisher for token operations feat(pubsub): add HedgeSettings and integrate with Publisher Jul 13, 2026
@tonyyyycui tonyyyycui changed the title feat(pubsub): add HedgeSettings and integrate with Publisher feat(pubsub): implement HedgeSettings and integrate with Publisher Jul 13, 2026

@michaelpri10 michaelpri10 left a comment

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

At a higher level, I think the full implementation should be one PR (instead of the , given any submitted changes become public. It would be unexpected for customers to be able to set HedgingSettings without anything actually happening, so the final PR should have everything needed for the implementation included.

/** Settings for configuring publish hedging. */
public final class HedgeSettings {
/** Default hedging delay. */
private static final Duration DEFAULT_DELAY = Duration.ofMillis(100);

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

As a note, this value will be changing (potentially other default values as well). Leaving this as a placeholder comment to ensure these meet the agreed upon values before merging.

*
* @return the hedging delay.
*/
public Duration getHedgeDelay() {

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

nit: Does this method need to be public? I think leaving it without an access modifier (i.e., making it package-private) should be sufficient.

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I've removed it for now, but I think it would also make sense if the user could see what they see the hedge delay is set to since it's a configurable field. Leaving this conversation unresolved.

Comment on lines +19 to +64
import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
import javax.annotation.concurrent.GuardedBy;

/** Token bucket for limiting hedged requests. Thread-safe. */
final class HedgeTokenBucket {
private final int maxTokens;
private final float refillAmount;

@GuardedBy("this")
private float tokens;

HedgeTokenBucket(HedgeSettings settings) {
this.maxTokens = settings.getMaxTokens();
this.refillAmount = settings.getRefill();
this.tokens = maxTokens;
}

@VisibleForTesting
HedgeTokenBucket(int maxTokens, float refillAmount) {
this.maxTokens = maxTokens;
this.refillAmount = refillAmount;
this.tokens = maxTokens;
}

/**
* Attempts to acquire a token for a hedged request.
*
* @return {@code true} if a token was acquired, {@code false} otherwise.
*/
synchronized boolean tryAcquire() {
if (tokens >= 1.0f) {
tokens -= 1.0f;
return true;
}
return false;
}

/** Refills the bucket by the configured refill amount, capped at max tokens. */
synchronized void refill() {
tokens = Math.min(maxTokens, tokens + refillAmount);
}

@VisibleForTesting
synchronized float getTokens() {
return tokens;
}

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think this is a valid concern regarding high contention from the use of synchronized for lock synchronization in this class. I'll take a deeper look on Monday at what better options would be.

@tonyyyycui tonyyyycui changed the title feat(pubsub): implement HedgeSettings and integrate with Publisher feat(pubsub): implement publish hedging to reduce tail latency Jul 20, 2026
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants