100% CPU in multithreading applications

[Airslash]

Still struggling with my client & server applications (see previous posts), but right now I've managed to gain a stead 10FPS when transfering images from the server to the client. So i'm making progress.

The problem I'm currently experiencing, is that after a few seconds both my client and server application start claiming 100% of the CPU. I've placed Thread.Sleep() functions in the loops to make sure they're don't claim everything, but it's not helping. Below is the loop function for my 4 threads. Someone who can point out whats causing this?

All Threads rely on the Thread class of .NET as a private member of my components. I've stripped all comments to ensure the code fits. I know some paths in the loops do not enter the sleep, but the logic here says that work needs to be performed. The idea is that the client sends a single request and the server pushes data back untill told to stop.

Parser loop: parses the data received from the tcp socket.

        void ProcessRoutine()
        {
            m_running = true;
 
            while(m_running)
            {
                try
                {
                    if (Buffer.Length > 0)
                    {
                        int start_position = 0;
 
                        while (start_position < Buffer.Length - 4)
                        {
                            string section = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(Buffer.Read(start_position, 4));
 
                            if (string.Equals(section, "@VT:"))
                            {
                                int binary_size = BitConverter.ToInt32(Buffer.Read(start_position + 8, 4), 0);
 
                                if ((start_position + 12 + binary_size) <= Buffer.Length)
                                {
                                    byte[] symbol = Buffer.Read(start_position + 12 + binary_size, 1);
 
                                    if (Encoding.ASCII.GetString(symbol, 0, 1) == "#")
                                    {
                                        int end_position = start_position + 12 + binary_size + 1;
 
                                        IVTMessage message = IVTMessageBuilder.Construct(Buffer.Read(start_position, end_position));
 
                                        Buffer.Delete(start_position, end_position);
 
                                        RaiseOnMessageEvent(message);
 
                                        start_position = 0;
                                        break;
                                    }
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    Buffer.Delete(start_position, start_position + 12 + binary_size + 1);
                                    start_position = 0;
                                    break;
                                }
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                start_position++;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Thread.Sleep(50);
                    }
                }
                catch (ThreadAbortException)
                { 
                    m_running = false;
                    Debug.WriteLine("Background thread has been aborted.");
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                { 
                    Debug.WriteLine("   Exception message");
                    Debug.WriteLine("========================");                
                    Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                    Debug.WriteLine(" InnerException message");
                    Debug.WriteLine("========================");
                    Debug.WriteLine(ex.InnerException.Message);
                    Debug.WriteLine("       StackTrace");
                    Debug.WriteLine("========================");
                    Debug.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
                }
            }
        }
 

TCP loop: polls the socket for data

        void ListenRoutine()
        { 
            m_running = true;
 
            while (m_running)
            {
                try
                {
                    if (m_socket != null)
                    {
                        lock (m_lock)
                        {
                            if (Connected && (m_socket.Available > 0))
                            {
                                int data_available = m_socket.Available;
                                byte[] buffer = new byte[data_available];
                                int bytes_read = m_socket.Receive(buffer, 0, data_available, SocketFlags.None);
 
                                RaiseOnDataEvent(buffer, bytes_read, (m_socket.RemoteEndPoint as IPEndPoint).Address.ToString(), (m_socket.RemoteEndPoint as IPEndPoint).Port);
                            }
                        }
 
                        Thread.Sleep(50);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        throw new Exception("The internal socket has been closed/disposed.");
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    RaiseOnErrorEvent("ListenRoutine", ex);
                    Disconnect();
                }
            }
        }
 

I know these are rather difficult things to ask, but I'm a bit clueless as where to look/proceed to find the issue.
Also, code still belongs to me. You can use it if it's usefull, but please put in the source where you got it from.

[TamusJRoyce]

The first thing I see is that (start_position + 12 + binary_size) will always be constant. Because of this,

int binary_size = BitConverter.ToInt32(Buffer.Read(start_position + 8, 4), 0);
 
if ((start_position + 12 + binary_size) <= Buffer.Length)
{
  // Will always be true
} else {
  // Will never be hit
  break; // break loop
} // End if
 

Maybe you want:

int binary_size = 0;
 
while (m_running)
{
  ...
  binary_size += BitConverter.ToInt32(Buffer.Read(start_position + 8, 4), 0);
 
  if ((start_position + 12 + binary_size) <= Buffer.Length)
  {
    // Will always be true
  } else {
    // Will never be hit
    break; // break loop
  } // End if
 

I think this would cause your client to pull for data endlessly. I'm not sure why your server would spike at 100%, though. Since when it completes sending data, it should wait.

I am guessing, however, that Buffer.Read() returns the number of bytes read, and not the location of the read.

[Airslash]

I sorted it myself, one of the possible logic loops resulted in no Thread.Sleep beeing called, thus keeping the thread hogging all the CPU.

The part with binary_size, is that I read out 4 bytes from the TCP message to determine how many data is still behind. But since I do not know if they're already received I had to do it this way.

The new loop is 3 times shorter and has no CPU load anymore.