Trace ID Generator Benchmark

This project benchmarks different trace ID generation methods:

1. Java's UUID.randomUUID()
2. OpenTelemetry's RandomIdGenerator

Overview

The benchmark compares both string and raw byte generation performance for:

• UUID.randomUUID() - standard Java UUID generation
• OpenTelemetry RandomIdGenerator - used in OpenTelemetry for trace ID generation

RandomIdGenerator.generateTraceId() is ~17x faster than UUID.randomUUID().toString() when running experiments with a single JMH thread while it is ~150x faster in experiments run with 10 JMH threads (i.e. typical web application settings). Jump to results on my machine.

Prerequisites

• Java 17 or later
• Gradle 9.x or later

Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Run the benchmark:

   ./gradlew clean jmhReport -Pjmh.threads=10

Benchmark Details

The benchmark includes four test scenarios:

1. uuidBasedTraceId - Measures UUID.randomUUID().toString()
2. openTelemetryTraceId - Measures RandomIdGenerator.generateTraceId()

Configuration:

• Warmup: 5 iterations
• Measurement: 10 iterations
• Forks: 2
• Modes: Average Time and Throughput
• Time Unit: Nanoseconds
• Threads: Default 1 threads which can be overriden by -Pjmh.threads=<numberOfThreads>

Results

Benchmark results are generated in two formats:

1. JSON format: build/reports/jmh/results.json
2. HTML report: build/reports/jmh/index.html

Reading the Results

The benchmark measures:

• Average Time (ns): Lower is better
• Throughput (ops/ns): Higher is better

Key metrics to look for:

• Score: The primary measurement result
• Error: The statistical error margin
• Units: The measurement unit (ns/op for time, ops/ns for throughput)

Results on my machine

My Machine details

Infrastructure:

• Hardware: Apple M3 Pro 18 GB
• OS: 26.0.1 Java Settings:
• Default:
  • Available processors: 11
  • Max memory: 4608MB
• Overrides:
  • java.security.egd='' to force using DRBG for SecureRandom implementation used by UUID.

Experiments with JMH threads = 1

JMH threads: 1 JVM version: JDK 25, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 25+36-LTS (Zulu25.28+85-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.069	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.004	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	14.321	± 0.130	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	247.141	± 8.476	ns/op

JMH threads: 1 and JVM version: JDK 21.0.9, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 21.0.9+10-LTS (Zulu21.46+19-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.069	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.004	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	14.528	± 0.474	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	245.351	± 14.737	ns/op

JMH threads: 1 and JVM version: JDK 17.0.17, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 17.0.17+10-LTS (Zulu17.62+17-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.070	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.001	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	14.414	± 0.241	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	862.166	± 13.122	ns/op

Experiments with JMH threads = 10

JMH threads: 10 and JVM version: JDK 25, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 25+36-LTS (Zulu25.28+85-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.420	± 0.007	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.003	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	24.967	± 1.525	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	3761.317	± 65.991	ns/op

JMH threads: 10 and JVM version: JDK 21.0.9, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 21.0.9+10-LTS (Zulu21.46+19-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.417	± 0.021	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.003	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	23.517	± 1.003	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	4032.508	± 176.588	ns/op

JMH threads: 10 and JVM version: JDK 17.0.17, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 17.0.17+10-LTS (Zulu17.62+17-CA)

Benchmark	Mode	Cnt	Score	Error	Units
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	thrpt	20	0.435	± 0.009	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	thrpt	20	0.001	± 0.001	ops/ns
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.openTelemetryTraceId	avgt	20	23.236	± 0.393	ns/op
TraceIdGeneratorBenchmark.uuidBasedTraceId	avgt	20	12327.410	± 886.314	ns/op

Notes

• The benchmarks use JMH's Blackhole to prevent dead code elimination
• Each benchmark is run in isolated JVM forks to prevent cross-contamination

License

MIT License