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Add comprehensive profiling suite for core routing algorithm with UW Campus OSM data

Open Copilot opened this issue 6 months ago • 0 comments

This PR implements a complete profiling suite to identify performance bottlenecks in the core GraphServer routing algorithm using real-world UW Campus OSM data scenarios.

Problem Statement

To find performance bottlenecks in existing code, we needed profiling tools that exercise the core C routing algorithm with realistic workloads rather than synthetic test data. The existing performance tests used simple synthetic providers, but real-world routing involves complex OSM data parsing and network connectivity challenges.

Solution

The profiling suite focuses on profiling the C code implementation rather than Python wrapper overhead, providing detailed insights into core routing performance bottlenecks.

Key Components

C-based Core Profiler (scripts/profile_routing.c)

  • Direct profiling of C routing functions with minimal overhead
  • High-precision timing using clock_gettime() for microsecond accuracy
  • 15 realistic UW Campus coordinate pairs covering various routing scenarios
  • Stress testing with up to 200 routing operations
  • Memory usage pattern analysis across multiple planning cycles

Python OSM Integration (scripts/profile_osm_routing.py)

  • Uses actual UW Campus OSM data parsing but profiles C-level performance
  • Leverages existing OSM providers for realistic network connectivity
  • Supports cProfile integration for detailed function call analysis
  • Comprehensive performance metrics including cache hit ratios

Build System & Convenience Tools

  • Makefile with multiple profiling modes: standard, gprof, valgrind, stress testing
  • run_profiler.sh convenience script with colored output and error handling
  • Comprehensive documentation with usage examples and result interpretation

Key Results

The profiler successfully identifies that total_planning (encompassing gs_plan_simple and core Dijkstra implementation) consumes 97-99% of execution time, providing clear direction for optimization efforts:

⏱️  Function Performance Breakdown:
Function                       Calls     Total(s)      Avg(ms)      Min(ms)      Max(ms)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
total_planning                    95     1.037683       10.923        0.001      219.166

🎯 Performance Insights:
  🐌 Slowest function: total_planning (97.4% of execution time)
  
💡 Optimization Recommendations:
  🎯 HIGH PRIORITY: Optimize total_planning (97.4% of execution time)

Additional insights include:

  • Memory usage patterns showing significant growth during complex routing (up to 22MB peak)
  • Cache performance metrics indicating optimization opportunities
  • Throughput measurements averaging 200+ routes/second under stress testing

Usage

# Quick 5-scenario test
cd scripts/
./run_profiler.sh quick

# Standard 25-scenario analysis  
./run_profiler.sh standard

# Detailed gprof profiling
./run_profiler.sh gprof

# Memory analysis with Valgrind
./run_profiler.sh valgrind

The profiling suite provides the foundation for identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks in tough real-world scenarios, focusing analysis on the core C routing implementation where optimization efforts will have the most impact.


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Copilot avatar Aug 10 '25 22:08 Copilot