linux-stable.git/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt, branch linux-3.10.y

tcp: tsq: restore minimal amount of queueing

2013-12-08T15:29:24+00:00

[ Upstream commit 98e09386c0ef4dfd48af7ba60ff908f0d525cdee ]

After commit c9eeec26e32e ("tcp: TSQ can use a dynamic limit"), several
users reported throughput regressions, notably on mvneta and wifi
adapters.

802.11 AMPDU requires a fair amount of queueing to be effective.

This patch partially reverts the change done in tcp_write_xmit()
so that the minimal amount is sysctl_tcp_limit_output_bytes.

It also remove the use of this sysctl while building skb stored
in write queue, as TSO autosizing does the right thing anyway.

Users with well behaving NICS and correct qdisc (like sch_fq),
can then lower the default sysctl_tcp_limit_output_bytes value from
128KB to 8KB.

This new usage of sysctl_tcp_limit_output_bytes permits each driver
authors to check how their driver performs when/if the value is set
to a minimum of 4KB.

Normally, line rate for a single TCP flow should be possible,
but some drivers rely on timers to perform TX completion and
too long TX completion delays prevent reaching full throughput.

Fixes: c9eeec26e32e ("tcp: TSQ can use a dynamic limit")
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet 
Reported-by: Sujith Manoharan 
Reported-by: Arnaud Ebalard 
Tested-by: Sujith Manoharan 
Cc: Felix Fietkau 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller 
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

tcp: TSO packets automatic sizing

2013-11-04T12:30:59+00:00

[ Upstream commits 6d36824e730f247b602c90e8715a792003e3c5a7,
  02cf4ebd82ff0ac7254b88e466820a290ed8289a, and parts of
  7eec4174ff29cd42f2acfae8112f51c228545d40 ]

After hearing many people over past years complaining against TSO being
bursty or even buggy, we are proud to present automatic sizing of TSO
packets.

One part of the problem is that tcp_tso_should_defer() uses an heuristic
relying on upcoming ACKS instead of a timer, but more generally, having
big TSO packets makes little sense for low rates, as it tends to create
micro bursts on the network, and general consensus is to reduce the
buffering amount.

This patch introduces a per socket sk_pacing_rate, that approximates
the current sending rate, and allows us to size the TSO packets so
that we try to send one packet every ms.

This field could be set by other transports.

Patch has no impact for high speed flows, where having large TSO packets
makes sense to reach line rate.

For other flows, this helps better packet scheduling and ACK clocking.

This patch increases performance of TCP flows in lossy environments.

A new sysctl (tcp_min_tso_segs) is added, to specify the
minimal size of a TSO packet (default being 2).

A follow-up patch will provide a new packet scheduler (FQ), using
sk_pacing_rate as an input to perform optional per flow pacing.

This explains why we chose to set sk_pacing_rate to twice the current
rate, allowing 'slow start' ramp up.

sk_pacing_rate = 2 * cwnd * mss / srtt

v2: Neal Cardwell reported a suspect deferring of last two segments on
initial write of 10 MSS, I had to change tcp_tso_should_defer() to take
into account tp->xmit_size_goal_segs

Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet 
Cc: Neal Cardwell 
Cc: Yuchung Cheng 
Cc: Van Jacobson 
Cc: Tom Herbert 
Acked-by: Yuchung Cheng 
Acked-by: Neal Cardwell 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller 
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

tcp: doc : fix the syncookies default value

2013-06-24T07:26:26+00:00

syncookies is on for default since in commit e994b7c901
(tcp: Don't make syn cookies initial setting depend on CONFIG_SYSCTL).

And fix a typo of CONFIG_SYN_COOKIES.

Signed-off-by: Shan Wei 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

tcp: implement RFC5682 F-RTO

2013-03-21T15:47:51+00:00

This patch implements F-RTO (foward RTO recovery):

When the first retransmission after timeout is acknowledged, F-RTO
sends new data instead of old data. If the next ACK acknowledges
some never-retransmitted data, then the timeout was spurious and the
congestion state is reverted.  Otherwise if the next ACK selectively
acknowledges the new data, then the timeout was genuine and the
loss recovery continues. This idea applies to recurring timeouts
as well. While F-RTO sends different data during timeout recovery,
it does not (and should not) change the congestion control.

The implementaion follows the three steps of SACK enhanced algorithm
(section 3) in RFC5682. Step 1 is in tcp_enter_loss(). Step 2 and
3 are in tcp_process_loss().  The basic version is not supported
because SACK enhanced version also works for non-SACK connections.

The new implementation is functionally in parity with the old F-RTO
implementation except the one case where it increases undo events:
In addition to the RFC algorithm, a spurious timeout may be detected
without sending data in step 2, as long as the SACK confirms not
all the original data are dropped. When this happens, the sender
will undo the cwnd and perhaps enter fast recovery instead. This
additional check increases the F-RTO undo events by 5x compared
to the prior implementation on Google Web servers, since the sender
often does not have new data to send for HTTP.

Note F-RTO may detect spurious timeout before Eifel with timestamps
does so.

Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng 
Acked-by: Eric Dumazet 
Acked-by: Neal Cardwell 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

tcp: refactor F-RTO

2013-03-21T15:47:50+00:00

The patch series refactor the F-RTO feature (RFC4138/5682).

This is to simplify the loss recovery processing. Existing F-RTO
was developed during the experimental stage (RFC4138) and has
many experimental features.  It takes a separate code path from
the traditional timeout processing by overloading CA_Disorder
instead of using CA_Loss state. This complicates CA_Disorder state
handling because it's also used for handling dubious ACKs and undos.
While the algorithm in the RFC does not change the congestion control,
the implementation intercepts congestion control in various places
(e.g., frto_cwnd in tcp_ack()).

The new code implements newer F-RTO RFC5682 using CA_Loss processing
path.  F-RTO becomes a small extension in the timeout processing
and interfaces with congestion control and Eifel undo modules.
It lets congestion control (module) determines how many to send
independently.  F-RTO only chooses what to send in order to detect
spurious retranmission. If timeout is found spurious it invokes
existing Eifel undo algorithms like DSACK or TCP timestamp based
detection.

The first patch removes all F-RTO code except the sysctl_tcp_frto is
left for the new implementation.  Since CA_EVENT_FRTO is removed, TCP
westwood now computes ssthresh on regular timeout CA_EVENT_LOSS event.

Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng 
Acked-by: Neal Cardwell 
Acked-by: Eric Dumazet 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

tcp: Remove TCPCT

2013-03-17T18:35:13+00:00

TCPCT uses option-number 253, reserved for experimental use and should
not be used in production environments.
Further, TCPCT does not fully implement RFC 6013.

As a nice side-effect, removing TCPCT increases TCP's performance for
very short flows:

Doing an apache-benchmark with -c 100 -n 100000, sending HTTP-requests
for files of 1KB size.

before this patch:
	average (among 7 runs) of 20845.5 Requests/Second
after:
	average (among 7 runs) of 21403.6 Requests/Second

Signed-off-by: Christoph Paasch 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

Documentation: fix neigh/default/gc_thresh1 default value.

2013-03-15T13:12:23+00:00

The default value is 128, not 256
	#grep gc_thresh1 net/ -rI
	net/decnet/dn_neigh.c:	.gc_thresh1 =			128,
	net/ipv6/ndisc.c:	.gc_thresh1 =	 128,
	net/ipv4/arp.c:	.gc_thresh1	= 128,

Signed-off-by: Li RongQing 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

tcp: Tail loss probe (TLP)

2013-03-12T12:30:34+00:00

This patch series implement the Tail loss probe (TLP) algorithm described
in http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dukkipati-tcpm-tcp-loss-probe-01. The
first patch implements the basic algorithm.

TLP's goal is to reduce tail latency of short transactions. It achieves
this by converting retransmission timeouts (RTOs) occuring due
to tail losses (losses at end of transactions) into fast recovery.
TLP transmits one packet in two round-trips when a connection is in
Open state and isn't receiving any ACKs. The transmitted packet, aka
loss probe, can be either new or a retransmission. When there is tail
loss, the ACK from a loss probe triggers FACK/early-retransmit based
fast recovery, thus avoiding a costly RTO. In the absence of loss,
there is no change in the connection state.

PTO stands for probe timeout. It is a timer event indicating
that an ACK is overdue and triggers a loss probe packet. The PTO value
is set to max(2*SRTT, 10ms) and is adjusted to account for delayed
ACK timer when there is only one oustanding packet.

TLP Algorithm

On transmission of new data in Open state:
  -> packets_out > 1: schedule PTO in max(2*SRTT, 10ms).
  -> packets_out == 1: schedule PTO in max(2*RTT, 1.5*RTT + 200ms)
  -> PTO = min(PTO, RTO)

Conditions for scheduling PTO:
  -> Connection is in Open state.
  -> Connection is either cwnd limited or no new data to send.
  -> Number of probes per tail loss episode is limited to one.
  -> Connection is SACK enabled.

When PTO fires:
  new_segment_exists:
    -> transmit new segment.
    -> packets_out++. cwnd remains same.

  no_new_packet:
    -> retransmit the last segment.
       Its ACK triggers FACK or early retransmit based recovery.

ACK path:
  -> rearm RTO at start of ACK processing.
  -> reschedule PTO if need be.

In addition, the patch includes a small variation to the Early Retransmit
(ER) algorithm, such that ER and TLP together can in principle recover any
N-degree of tail loss through fast recovery. TLP is controlled by the same
sysctl as ER, tcp_early_retrans sysctl.
tcp_early_retrans==0; disables TLP and ER.
		 ==1; enables RFC5827 ER.
		 ==2; delayed ER.
		 ==3; TLP and delayed ER. [DEFAULT]
		 ==4; TLP only.

The TLP patch series have been extensively tested on Google Web servers.
It is most effective for short Web trasactions, where it reduced RTOs by 15%
and improved HTTP response time (average by 6%, 99th percentile by 10%).
The transmitted probes account for <0.5% of the overall transmissions.

Signed-off-by: Nandita Dukkipati 
Acked-by: Neal Cardwell 
Acked-by: Yuchung Cheng 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

tcp: remove Appropriate Byte Count support

2013-02-05T19:51:16+00:00

TCP Appropriate Byte Count was added by me, but later disabled.
There is no point in maintaining it since it is a potential source
of bugs and Linux already implements other better window protection
heuristics.

Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller

neigh: Keep neighbour cache entries if number of them is small enough.

2013-01-22T19:25:28+00:00

Since we have removed NCE (Neighbour Cache Entry) reference from
routing entries, the only refcnt holders of an NCE are its timer
(if running) and its owner table, in usual cases.  As a result,
neigh_periodic_work() purges NCEs over and over again even for
gateways.

It does not make sense to purge entries, if number of them is
very small, so keep them.  The minimum number of entries to keep
is specified by gc_thresh1.

Signed-off-by: YOSHIFUJI Hideaki 
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller