MPMCQueue.h

A bounded multi-producer multi-consumer lock-free queue written in C++11.

Example

MPMCQueue<int> q(10);
auto t1 = std::thread([&] {
  int v;
  q.pop(v);
  std::cout << "t1 " << v << "\n";
});
auto t2 = std::thread([&] {
  int v;
  q.pop(v);
  std::cout << "t2 " << v << "\n";
});
q.push(1);
q.push(2);
t1.join();
t2.join();

Usage

• MPMCQueue<T>(size_t capacity);

  Constructs a new MPMCQueue holding items of type T with capacity capacity.

• void emplace(Args &&... args);

  Enqueue an item using inplace construction. Blocks if queue is full.

• bool try_emplace(Args &&... args);

  Try to enqueue an item using inplace construction. Returns true on success and false if queue is full.

• void pop(T &v);

  Dequeue an item by copying or moving the item into v. Blocks if queue is empty.

• bool try_pop(T &v);

  Try to dequeue an item by copying or moving the item into v. Return true on sucess and false if the queue is empty.

All operations except construction and destruction are thread safe.

Implementation

Enqeue:

1. Acquire next write ticket from head.
2. Wait for our turn (2 * (ticket / capacity)) to write slot (ticket % capacity).
3. Set turn = turn + 1 to inform the readers we are done writing.

Dequeue:

1. Acquire next read ticket from tail.
2. Wait for our turn (2 * (ticket / capacity) + 1) to read slot (ticket % capacity).
3. Set turn = turn + 1 to inform the writers we are done reading.

References:

• Dave Dice. PTLQueue : a scalable bounded-capacity MPMC queue.
• Dmitry Vyukov. Bounded MPMC queue.
• Massimiliano Meneghin et al. Performance evaluation of inter-thread communication mechanisms on multicore/multithreaded architectures.
• Oleksandr Otenko. US 8607249 B2: System and method for efficient concurrent queue implementation.
• Paul E. McKenney. Memory Barriers: a Hardware View for Software Hackers.

Testing

Testing lock-free algorithms is hard. I'm using two approaches to test the implementation:

• A single threaded test that the functionality works as intended, including that the element constructor and destructor is invoked correctly.
• A multithreaded fuzz test that all elements are enqueued and dequeued correctly under heavy contention.

Benchmarks

TODO

About

This project was created by Erik Rigtorp <[email protected]>.