A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF WEBASSEMBLY INTEGRATION: ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNS, TOOLING, AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Oleksandr Stepanov, Halyna Klym

Abstract


Background. WebAssembly (Wasm) is a fundamental component for high-performance web applications, valued for strategic integration, not simple JavaScript replacement. Integration introduces significant challenges: language interoperability, data transfer overhead, and state management. This paper presents a comprehensive quantitative analysis, providing solutions and architectural patterns supported by empirical data.

Materials and Methods. The study comprised two parts. Client-side interoperability was analyzed using Rust-based wasm-bindgen microbenchmarks to measure JavaScript-Wasm "bridge crossing" overhead, testing primitives, array copies, and SharedArrayBuffer access. Server-side potential was evaluated by comparing a Wasm/WASI compliant runtime module with a traditional Docker container, focusing on critical cloud metrics: cold start time, binary file size, and security models.

Results and Discussion. Interoperability costs vary significantly. Primitive calls are negligible (~50-100 ns), but copying a 1MB array is a severe bottleneck (1-3 ms), making frequent large data copies ("chatty" APIs) non-viable. SharedArrayBuffer overhead is minimal (~15 ns). Server-side analysis showed transformative results: WASI is ~100x faster cold start (<1 ms) and ~50x smaller binary size (0.5-5 MB) than Docker, offering a more granular, capability-based security model. Benchmarks confirm Rust+Wasm achieves up to 8.7x performance gains. We discuss "Wasm as a Pure Function" vs. "Wasm with Shared Memory," the latter providing an additional 2-3x speedup by eliminating copy bottlenecks.

Conclusion. Maximum ROI in Wasm requires the right architectural patterns and careful design of "coarse-grained" interaction APIs to mitigate overhead. SharedArrayBuffer is the essential solution for high-throughput applications. The emergence of WASI positions it as a key technology for future serverless, edge computing, and plugin architectures, offering substantial, measurable benefits.

Keywords: WebAssembly, web application performance, microfrontends, Rust, JavaScript, SharedArrayBuffer.


Full Text:

PDF

References


[1] Schmidt, A., & Kovacs, L. (2024). High-performance AI in composable web architectures: A WebAssembly and micro-frontend approach. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Pisa, Italy, 212–223. https://doi.org/10.1145/3658235.3658251

[2] Stepanov, O., & Klym, H. (2024). Features of the implementation of micro-interfaces in information systems. Advances in Cyber-Physical Systems, 9(1), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.23939/acps2024.01.054

[3] Stepanov, O., & Klym, H. (2024). Methodology of implementation of information system using micro interfaces to increase the quality and speed of their development. Computer Systems and Networks, 6(2), 222–231. https://doi.org/10.23939/csn2024.02.222

[4] Dubois, M., & Moreau, C. (2024). Dynamic loading and execution of AI models in micro-frontends using the WASM component model. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Compiler Construction (CC), Edinburgh, UK, 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1145/3642939.3642947

[5] Brandt, L., & Sørensen, K. (2024). Seamless user experience: Combining lazy-loading of micro-frontends with streaming instantiation of WebAssembly AI modules. IEEE Software, 41(2), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2023.3323210

[6] Costa, G., & Ferreira, M. (2024). WebGPU and WebAssembly: The next frontier for high-performance 3D and AI integration in composable web applications. Proceedings of the 29th International ACM Conference on 3D Web Technology (Web3D), San Sebastian, Spain, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/3653481.3653488

[7] Szymański, M., & Nowak, A. (2024). Improving developer experience: A toolchain for debugging and profiling WebAssembly-based AI components in micro-frontend systems. Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 4th International Workshop on Software Engineering for Web-Based Systems (SEW '24), Lisbon, Portugal, 67–74. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643750.3643758

[8] Moreau, F., & Bianchi, E. (2024). A hybrid execution model for web-based AI: Orchestrating client-side WASM and server-side GPU inference in micro-frontends. Proceedings of The Web Conference (WWW '24), Singapore, 1123–1134. https://doi.org/10.1145/3589334.3645657

[9] Stepanov, O., & Klym, H. (2024). Challenges, communication and future of micro frontends development and implementation. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Dependable Systems, Services and Technologies (DESSERT), Athens, Greece, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/DESSERT65323.2024.11122150

[10] Shaik, S. (2025). Leveraging WebAssembly in micro frontend architectures: A technical deep dive. Journal of Computer Science and Technology Studies, 7(3), 860–865. https://doi.org/10.32996/jcsts.2025.7.3.95

[11] De Palma, G., Giallorenzo, S., Mauro, J., Trentin, M., & Zavattaro, G. (2024). FunLess: Functions-as-a-service for private edge cloud systems. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS), Shenzhen, China, 41–51. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICWS62873.2024.00016

[12] Mathew, P. (2025). Front-end performance optimization for next-generation digital services. Journal of Computer Science and Technology Studies, 7(4), 993–1004. https://doi.org/10.32996/jcsts.2025.7.4.111

[13] Zhang, Y., Liu, M., Wang, H., Ma, Y., Huang, G., & Liu, X. (2024). Research on WebAssembly runtimes: A survey. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 34(1), Article 29, 1–46. https://doi.org/10.1145/3639198

[14] da Silva, N. P. S., Rodrigues, E., & Conte, T. (2025). A catalog of micro frontends anti-patterns. IEEE Software, 42(1), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2024.3468901

[15] Borello, D. (2024). Micro frontends, server components and how these technologies can provide a paradigm shift with architectural changes in modern enterprise web app development (Doctoral dissertation, Politecnico di Torino). https://doi.org/10.6092/polito/porto/1183181

[16] Lehman, T. J., & Ko, R. K. L. (2024). Wasm-bpf: A framework for WebAssembly-based BPF programs. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE 21st International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), Hyderabad, India, 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSA59381.2024.00012

[17] Al-Azzoni, I. S., & Al-Husainy, M. A. F. (2024). A novel micro-frontend architecture for enhancing scalability and maintainability in e-commerce web applications. International Journal of Intelligent Engineering and Systems, 17(2), 453–463. https://doi.org/10.22266/ijies2024.0430.40

[18] Carrera, J. M., & Mazzeo, A. (2024). A micro-frontend architecture for e-commerce based on web components and module federation. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on E-Business Engineering (ICEBE), Florence, Italy, 248–253. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEBE63920.2024.10660721

[19] Le, D. S., & Nguyen, P. H. H. (2024). Optimizing real-time data synchronization between micro-frontends using shared workers and WebAssembly. International Journal of Web Information Systems, 20(5), 714–735. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWIS-04-2024-0045




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/eli.32.10

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.