A Massively Scalable Architecture For Instant Messaging & Presence

This paper analyzes the scalability of Instant Messaging & Presence (IM&P) architectures. We take a queueing-based modelling and analysis approach to find the bottlenecks of the current IM&P architecture at the Dutch social network Hyves, as well as to analyse three alternative architectures: evolutionary partitioning, aggregated, batched presence updates and presence subscriptions. We use the Hierarchical Evaluation Tool (HIT) to create and analyse models analytically. Based on these results, we recommend a new architecture that provides better scalability than the current one.