Why Nodejs is so fast?

If you’re startled by Node.js’s popularity, you’re not alone. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who feels this way. Node.js has taken the world of online and application development by storm since its birth in 2009, rising as the most popular development environment.

The popularity of Node.js is due to a number of causes. It features a large active community and a simple learning curve, for starters.

This is most likely why large brands like PayPal, LinkedIn, and Uber use the framework and praise it for its excellent results.

In this article, we’ll go through every feature of Node.js that distinguishes it from the rest of the JavaScript framework. In addition, we’ll go over the top five Node.js use cases.

What makes Node.js so fast?

When we talk about Node.js, the first thing that springs to mind is the execution speed. So, in this section, we’ll try to figure out why Node.js is faster than the others. First and foremost, it’s critical to comprehend what ‘execution speed’ entails.

Execution speed can refer to anything from calculating the Fibonacci sequence to searching a database.

Execution speed in the context of web-services refers to everything that is required to process requests and produce a response to the client. It’s the amount of time it takes to process a request, starting with the first connection and ending when the client receives the response.

Let’s have a look at a few aspects that will help us figure out what makes Node.js so fast.

• Node.js is a single-threaded and asynchronous. This means that all I/O activities do not obstruct other processes. You can also send emails, read files, query the database, and so on all at the same time.
• There will be no distinct Node.js process for each request to the web server. However, one Node.js process would be running at all times, listening for connections. All JavaScript code is run in the main thread of the process, while all other I/O activities are run in different threads, resulting in nearly no delays.
• A JIT compilation is used by the virtual machine in Node.js (V8) that is responsible for executing JavaScript. At runtime, the virtual machine can take the source code and compile it into machine code. What this means is that all “hot” functions that are used frequently can be compiled to machine code, resulting in faster execution.

These points provided insight into why Node.js is so quick. Let’s have a look at what makes Node.js do all of this.

Understanding asynchronous

With the help of an example, we’ll try to grasp the concept of asynchronous processing.

Assume you’re on top of a mountain, surrounded by 100 balls. And your goal is to get all of the balls to the bottom of the mountain in the shortest amount of time. You obviously can’t press all of the balls at once, so you’ll have to do it one at a time. You have two options at this point.

In the first method, you can push one ball and then wait for it to reach the bottom before moving on to the next. This method, however, will take a long time to push all of the balls to the bottom.

You can push the balls one by one without waiting for them to reach the bottom in the second method. With this method, you can push all 100 balls in the shortest amount of time.

The first approach is synchronous execution, while the second is asynchronous execution in this case. The preceding example demonstrates that asynchronous execution is significantly faster than synchronous operation.

Now that you’ve grasped the fundamentals of asynchronous programming, let’s look at how it aids web server performance.

Assume that each ball corresponds to a single database query. As a result, if you process data in a synchronous manner for a large project with many aggregations, searches, and so on, the code execution will be blocked.

If you’re processing it asynchronously, however, you can just run all of the queries at the same time and then gather the results afterwards.

In the backend, Node.js is combined with Angular, React, React Native, and Vue.js to provide lightning-fast processing and rendering.

Event loop

The event loop is a mechanism that is in charge of dispatching events in a program that is always asynchronously running alongside the message originator.

When you use Node.js, it keeps a callback that is assigned to the operation anytime you perform an I/O operation, allowing you to continue processing other events. Once all of the required data has been gathered, the callback is invoked.

The web server sends all requests to the event loop, which registers the operation in a thread pool and assigns a callback to it.

The callback is invoked once the requests have been processed. Other demanding activities, such as searching the database, can be performed using callbacks.

Role of V8 in optimizing your code

V8 consists of two types of compilers which are:

• Full compiler
• Crankshaft compiler

The entire compiler is notable for its speed and ability to generate generic code. It also converts the JavaScript function’s Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) into generic native code. During this level, it only performs one optimization: inline caching.

V8 launches the profiler thread when the code is executing and the function is compiled to determine which functions are hot and which are not. Furthermore, it captures type feedback, which aids V8 in recording the type of data that is going through it.

V8 attempts to execute augmented AST though an optimizing compiler, sometimes known as the “Crankshaft” compiler, after identifying a “hot” function and gathering certain type feedback information.

The crankshaft compiler is slower, but it makes an effort to generate efficient code. It is made up of two elements: hydrogen and lithium.

The Hydrogen compiler’s job is to create a Control Flow Graph (CFG) from an AST file. The resulting graph is shown as a Static Single Assignment (SSA) graph.

With the help of the SSA form and simple structure of High-Level Intermediate Representation, the compiler may perform numerous optimizations such as method inlining, constant folding, and many others.

A Lithium compiler’s main goal is to convert the optimized HIR into an LIR. The LIR is remarkably similar to machine code, with the exception that it is platform agnostic.

After that, the old, non-optimized code is replaced with one that is. This aids in the speedier execution of code.

Top 5 best Node.js use cases

Apart from its speed, Node.js includes a number of capabilities that developers may employ in a range of applications. Let’s have a look at some of the top Node.js use cases.

Real-time applications

When asked, “What is the best use case for Node.js?” The real-time application is then the solution. This is one application where Node.js excels. Let’s look at why Node.js is so popular for real-time apps:

• Node.js enables reusing and sharing of Node.js packages that are used for storing library codes.
• It results in quick data sync between the server and the client.
• It can easily cope with multiple client requests.

In a word, if real-time data processing and scalability are two important considerations for your project, Node.js is the best technology to use.

Not only that, but there are numerous other reasons why Node.js should be used in real-time application development. So, if somebody wonders why you chose Node.js for a real-time application, here’s why.

Event-based server

Multiple real-time users must be dealt with in real-time applications. That’s where Node.js comes in, as it can handle responses that are based on an event-driven server, allowing for non-blocking functionality.

Data sync

The non-blocking I/O feature is used by a Node.js developer. It also allows for fast data transmission between the client and the server.

Proxy server

Node.js is the ideal alternative whenever intermediary admins are necessary. To use Node.js as a proxy server, a developer must write 20 lines of code. After that, your application will be well-suited for streaming data from numerous sources.

Other prominent real-time application use cases

The number of real-time application use cases is enormous. As a result, it’s critical to address some of the most common real-time application use cases, including:

Application monitoring dashboard

Another popular Node.js application is tracking website visitors and visualizing all of their real-time activities.

You can collect real-time statistics on your users here. You can take it a step further by introducing targeted interactions with your customers by simply opening the communication channel when your consumers reach a particular stage in the funnel.

This is extremely beneficial to any company since it allows them to see what their consumers or visitors are doing in real time. It also allows them to see their interactions in real time. These data are critical, and businesses can utilize them to improve their services. It’s all feasible thanks to Node.js’ real-time and two-way sockets.

System monitoring dashboard

Let’s have a look at the infrastructural side of things now. Consider a SaaS provider who wishes to give their users with a service-monitoring website similar to GitHub’s status page.

The Node.js event-loop allows you to create a robust web-based dashboard that can asynchronously monitor the status of services. With the support of WebSockets, it also pushes data to the client.

You can use this technology to report on the status of both public and internal services in real time.

Consider a Network Operations Center (NOC) monitoring apps at a financial institution, a telecoms operator, or a cloud/network/hosting provider, all of which are run on an open web stack with WebSockets and Node.js instead of Java or Java Applets.

Video streaming

Streaming is the process of sending large volumes of data in small batches rather than in one large batch. For designing video streaming applications, Node.js is an excellent choice. It’s ideal because it comes with built-in video streaming modules.

It also allows for the creation of both written and readable data streams. You may also process the files while they’re being uploaded with Node.js.

Node.js is also used by Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service with a presence in over 190 countries. Let’s have a look at why.

Why Netflix choose Node.js?

Netflix’s whole user interface is built on Node.js technology. Netflix quickly opted to use it on several other layers of stacks because it worked so effectively.

Netflix’s development team’s major goal in adopting Node.js is to create a lightweight software that can render high performance. The new Node-based application sped up the loading process by 70%. Aside from that, it resulted in the following:

• Improved performance
• Reduced build times
• Enabled user customization

Highly scalable applications

Node.js has become the platform of choice for all applications and platforms that see a steady increase in their user base. Node.js is used by companies such as Walmart, PayPal, Uber, Netflix, LinkedIn, and many more because it allows for seamless scalability.

Node.js’ cutting-edge technology includes capabilities such as cluster modules. It offers load balancing across several CPU cores, making it easier to deliver desired results via smaller modules without depleting RAM.

Not only that, but Node.js has a non-blocking event-loop system that allows servers to process requests in real time.

When it comes to development, Node.js allows you to use Microservices, which further allows you to break down your application into smaller components.

By defining and allocating tasks efficiently among different teams, you may accelerate the development, deployment, and maintenance of each component of your application.

With Node.js in place, modern apps can scale up and down as needed. It also assists businesses in achieving higher performance with fewer resources.

Chat

A chat application is the most common example of a real-time and multi-user application. Because it’s a data-intensive, high-traffic, and lightweight application that operates across multiple dispersed devices, a chat application is one of the greatest use cases for Node.js.

Let’s take a look at how it works in practice.

Consider the following scenario: we have a single chatroom on our website where individuals can come and exchange messages. Assume there are three people on the website who have access to the message board.

In that situation, the server-side Express.js application will implement the following two features:

• A request handler GET / that serves webpage consists of both a message board along with a ‘send’ button that initializes a new message input
• Websocket server which listens to all the new messages that are being emitted by the WebSocket clients.

On the client side, we have an HTML page with a handful of handlers set up. One of them is the ‘Send’ button click event, which is in charge of grabbing the input message and sending it down to the WebSocket. The other is used to listen for fresh incoming messages sent to the WebSocket client.

Let’s look at what happens when one of your clients sends you a message:

• First of all the browser picks up the ‘Send’ button click with the help of a JavaScript handler. Then it picks up the value from the text message text which is also known as the input field. After that, it emits the WebSocket message via a WebSocket client that is connected to the server which is initialized on the web page initialization.
• The messages are then received by the server-side component of the WebSocket connection. This component then uses the broadcast method to forward the message to all the other connected clients.
• The clients receive the message in the form of a push message through a WebSockets client-side component which is running within the web page. Afterwards, they just simply pick up the content of the message and update the web page in that place by just appending the new message on the board.

This was one of the most straightforward demonstrations of how it works. For a more robust solution, you can utilize a basic cache based on the Redis store.

Alternatively, you can use a message queue to control the routing of all messages to clients, as well as a delivery method that is resilient enough to replace momentary connection losses or retain messages for all registered clients when they are offline.

Server-Side Proxy

In online applications, a third-party proxy can cause havoc. Many common third-party servers, such as Nginx and HAProxy, struggle to handle simultaneous requests at times.

Node.js can be a lifesaver because it can easily be used as a server-side proxy because it can handle a large number of simultaneous connections while remaining non-blocking.

BBC News is an example of a NodeJS application. The BBC news website interacts with a number of third-party servers and gathers information from a variety of sources. Node.js assists in proxying various services with varying response times.

If your proxying infrastructure isn’t up to par, or if you need a solution for local development, you can use Node.js.

It implies you can use the Node.js development server for assets and stubbing API queries to create a client-side app. While in production, specialized proxy servers like HAProxy and nginx can handle such transactions.

Conclusion

With its lightning-fast execution speed, Node.js has proven to be a lifesaver for many developers and businesses. Many large corporations have taken advantage of this feature of Node.js. We went into great detail in this essay to explain what makes Node.js so quick and distinctive.

We also spoke about the top five best Node.js use cases. The primary lesson for all entrepreneurs and businesses from this post is that if they want to construct a website, online application, or mobile application that deals with real-time data, they should use Node.js.

At Nile Bits, we have a team of highly trained and experienced Node.js developers who have proven their worth by developing a number of real-time apps. You can engage our Node.js engineers for a top-notch real-time application if you’re an entrepreneur looking to construct any real-time web or mobile application.