Subject: [PATCH RFC v2 net-next 1/2] tcp: Add DPIFL thin stream detection mechanism

From: "Bendik Rønning Opstad" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:26:25 +0100

The existing mechanism for detecting thin streams (tcp_stream_is_thin)
is based on a static limit of less than 4 packets in flight. This treats
streams differently depending on the connections RTT, such that a stream
on a high RTT link may never be considered thin, whereas the same
application would produce a stream that would always be thin in a low RTT
scenario (e.g. data center).

By calculating a dynamic packets in flight limit (DPIFL), the thin stream
detection will be independent of the RTT and treat streams equally based
on the transmission pattern, i.e. the inter-transmission time (ITT).

Cc: Andreas Petlund <[email-masked]>
Cc: Carsten Griwodz <[email-masked]>
Cc: Pål Halvorsen <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jonas Markussen <[email-masked]>
Cc: Kristian Evensen <[email-masked]>
Cc: Kenneth Klette Jonassen <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Bendik Rønning Opstad <[email-masked]>
---
 Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt |  8 ++++++++
 include/net/tcp.h                      | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c             |  9 +++++++++
 net/ipv4/tcp.c                         |  2 ++
 4 files changed, 40 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
index 2ea4c45..938ae73 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
@@ -700,6 +700,14 @@ tcp_thin_dupack - BOOLEAN
 	Documentation/networking/tcp-thin.txt
 	Default: 0
 
+tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound - INTEGER
+	Controls the lower bound inter-transmission time (ITT) threshold
+	for when a stream is considered thin. The value is specified in
+	microseconds, and may not be lower than 10000 (10 ms). Based on
+	this threshold, a dynamic packets in flight limit (DPIFL) is
+	calculated, which is used to classify whether a stream is thin.
+	Default: 10000
+
 tcp_limit_output_bytes - INTEGER
 	Controls TCP Small Queue limit per tcp socket.
 	TCP bulk sender tends to increase packets in flight until it
diff --git a/include/net/tcp.h b/include/net/tcp.h
index 4fc457b..deac96f 100644
--- a/include/net/tcp.h
+++ b/include/net/tcp.h
@@ -215,6 +215,8 @@ void tcp_time_wait(struct sock *sk, int state, int timeo);
 
 /* TCP thin-stream limits */
 #define TCP_THIN_LINEAR_RETRIES 6       /* After 6 linear retries, do exp. backoff */
+/* Lowest possible DPIFL lower bound ITT is 10 ms (10000 usec) */
+#define TCP_THIN_DPIFL_ITT_LOWER_BOUND_MIN 10000
 
 /* TCP initial congestion window as per draft-hkchu-tcpm-initcwnd-01 */
 #define TCP_INIT_CWND		10
@@ -274,6 +276,7 @@ extern int sysctl_tcp_workaround_signed_windows;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_slow_start_after_idle;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_thin_linear_timeouts;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_thin_dupack;
+extern int sysctl_tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_early_retrans;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_limit_output_bytes;
 extern int sysctl_tcp_challenge_ack_limit;
@@ -1631,6 +1634,24 @@ static inline bool tcp_stream_is_thin(struct tcp_sock *tp)
 	return tp->packets_out < 4 && !tcp_in_initial_slowstart(tp);
 }
 
+/**
+ * tcp_stream_is_thin_dpifl() - Tests if the stream is thin based on dynamic PIF
+ *                              limit
+ * @tp: the tcp_sock struct
+ *
+ * Return: true if current packets in flight (PIF) count is lower than
+ *         the dynamic PIF limit, else false
+ */
+static inline bool tcp_stream_is_thin_dpifl(const struct tcp_sock *tp)
+{
+	/* Calculate the maximum allowed PIF limit by dividing the RTT by
+	 * the minimum allowed inter-transmission time (ITT).
+	 * Tests if PIF < RTT / ITT-lower-bound
+	 */
+	return (u64) tcp_packets_in_flight(tp) *
+		sysctl_tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound < (tp->srtt_us >> 3);
+}
+
 /* /proc */
 enum tcp_seq_states {
 	TCP_SEQ_STATE_LISTENING,
diff --git a/net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c b/net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c
index a0bd7a5..5b12446 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ static int tcp_syn_retries_min = 1;
 static int tcp_syn_retries_max = MAX_TCP_SYNCNT;
 static int ip_ping_group_range_min[] = { 0, 0 };
 static int ip_ping_group_range_max[] = { GID_T_MAX, GID_T_MAX };
+static int tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound_min = TCP_THIN_DPIFL_ITT_LOWER_BOUND_MIN;
 
 /* Update system visible IP port range */
 static void set_local_port_range(struct net *net, int range[2])
@@ -709,6 +710,14 @@ static struct ctl_table ipv4_table[] = {
 		.proc_handler   = proc_dointvec
 	},
 	{
+		.procname	= "tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound",
+		.data		= &sysctl_tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound,
+		.maxlen		= sizeof(int),
+		.mode		= 0644,
+		.proc_handler	= &proc_dointvec_minmax,
+		.extra1		= &tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound_min,
+	},
+	{
 		.procname	= "tcp_early_retrans",
 		.data		= &sysctl_tcp_early_retrans,
 		.maxlen		= sizeof(int),
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp.c b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
index c172877..cb3354d 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
@@ -287,6 +287,8 @@ int sysctl_tcp_min_tso_segs __read_mostly = 2;
 
 int sysctl_tcp_autocorking __read_mostly = 1;
 
+int sysctl_tcp_thin_dpifl_itt_lower_bound __read_mostly = TCP_THIN_DPIFL_ITT_LOWER_BOUND_MIN;
+
 struct percpu_counter tcp_orphan_count;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_orphan_count);
 
-- 
1.9.1