dwyl/learn-aws-lambda

How do we simulate "Real Time" interaction without WebSockets ?

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#32 opened on Jan 28, 2016

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 (3 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (1,037 stars) (206 forks)batch import
help wantedquestion

Description

WebSockets allow us to stream additional data from/to client/server beyond the limits of http request/response. This has opened a world of Real Time apps. Given that keeping Lambda functions running for long time will cost a lot (because we are billed per 100ms) we need to consider an alternative approach for sending data to the client after the initial page/data is rendered...

_Polling_?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12555043/my-understanding-of-http-polling-long-polling-http-streaming-and-websockets

Contributor guide

Tech stack
awsjavascriptnodejs
Domain
backendcloudapi
Issue type
research
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
HTTP basicsLambda billing modelreal time web patterns
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the trade offs between polling, long polling, and HTTP streaming approaches for real time interaction with AWS Lambda. Consider Lambda's stateless execution model and billing by 100ms increments. Provide a comparison that highlights when each method is appropriate and any AWS services (like API Gateway, DynamoDB streams, or CloudWatch events) that could be used to implement real time behavior.