[Twisted-Python] Implementing streaming (broadcast) TCP servers

[Adam Atlas]

I'm working on a server that will be streaming the same data from a  
source to many clients. It has to be invoked from an HTTP server, so  
I'm using twisted.web2 (not twisted.web because it also needs to host  
a WSGI application). In other words, calling GET on a certain path  
results in the stream as the response, at which point I don't really  
need any more HTTP functionality. I have it working... currently, the  
basic process is: I have a class implementing IByteStream, an  
instance of which is created for each client; it simply keeps a queue  
of data to be sent, sending one piece with each call to read(), or a  
sending a Deferred if the queue is empty. Meanwhile, the part of the  
application that provides the data (a different server, receiving  
data from a broadcaster) adds the data to all the clients' byte  
stream queues, whenever it receives a piece of data.

Since efficiency is obviously important for a streaming server, I was  
just wondering if anyone had any efficiency tips. I've tested it with  
at most 64 concurrent clients. There doesn't seem to be any slowdown  
from the clients' perspective (the data is coming in at the rate it  
should), but server-side, CPU and memory usage start increasing  
pretty quickly. Especially CPU -- with 64 clients, CPU usage peaked  
at 26.8%, which is not acceptable. Any thoughts? Is there a better  
way to handle the streaming process as I previously described?

- Adam