Retroactive Sampling with OpenTelemetry: Cut 90% Distributed Traci... Roman Khavronenko & Zhu Jiekun

This talk discusses the challenges of traffic consumption associated with tail-sampling traces in large-scale applications that operate across multiple clusters and availability zones. The speakers, Roman Khavronenko and Zhu Jiekun from VictoriaMetrics, introduce a retroactive sampling approach that enhances bandwidth efficiency by allowing OpenTelemetry collectors to buffer spans and send only the necessary data to a centralized trace backend. By implementing this strategy, attendees will learn how retroactive sampling can significantly reduce costs associated with tail-sampling and gain insights into its architectural design, practical implementation, and trade-off analysis for existing systems.