> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.rumi.systems/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.rumi.systems/performance/canonical-benchmark.md).

# Canonical Benchmark

This section presents results from a canonical benchmark that measures the end-to-end performance of Rumi's core message processing capabilities.

## What is Benchmarked

The canonical benchmark measures the **Receive-Process-Send flow** of a clustered microservice, which represents the fundamental operation pattern of most Rumi applications:

1. **Receive** - AEP Engine receives an inbound message
2. **Dispatch to Handler** - Engine starts a transaction and dispatches message to microservice
3. **Process** - Microservice message handler executes:
   * 3.1. **Read and write state POJOs** - Business logic accesses and modifies state
   * 3.2. **Send outbound messages** - Business logic creates response messages (held by engine)
4. **Return from Handler** - Control returns to the engine
5. **Commit** - Engine commits the transaction, which includes:
   * Replicating state changes and outbound messages to backup
   * Persisting changes to disk (asynchronous, non-blocking)
   * Receiving stability acknowledgment from backup
6. **Send Outbound Messages** - Engine releases held messages on commit completion

This flow exercises the complete Rumi stack including messaging, state management, persistence, cluster replication, consensus protocol, threading, and serialization.

## Key Metrics

The benchmark reports two primary metrics:

### Wire-to-Wire (w2w) Latency

* Measures time from inbound message arrival to outbound message transmission
* Reported as 50th, 99th, and 99.9th percentiles
* Includes all processing, persistence, and replication overhead
* Measured in **microseconds (µs)**

### Maximum Throughput

* Measures messages processed per second under saturated load
* Tests the platform's ability to handle high-volume scenarios
* Measured in **messages per second**

## Test Methodology

The benchmark is designed to provide:

* **Reproducibility** - Consistent hardware, software configuration, and test parameters
* **Relevance** - Tests real-world clustered microservice patterns
* **Transparency** - Full disclosure of test configuration and methodology
* **Comparability** - Consistent methodology across releases enables direct comparison

## Results Organization

Performance results are organized by Rumi release. Each release page includes:

* Complete latency and throughput results
* Performance analysis and characteristics
* Tuning recommendations
* Comparisons with previous releases (where applicable)

## Next Steps

* [Test Description](/performance/canonical-benchmark/test-description.md) - Detailed test methodology and configuration
* [Test Results](/performance/canonical-benchmark/test-results.md) - View performance results by release
* [Performance Benchmark Suite](/performance/benchmark-suite.md) - Full benchmark suite documentation