Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] gro: optimise redundant parsing of packets

From: Richard Gobert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2023 20:12:52 +0100

> On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 4:13 PM Richard Gobert <[email-masked]> wrote:
> >
> > Currently the IPv6 extension headers are parsed twice: first in
> > ipv6_gro_receive, and then again in ipv6_gro_complete.
> >
> > By using the new ->transport_proto field, and also storing the size of the
> > network header, we can avoid parsing extension headers a second time in
> > ipv6_gro_complete (which saves multiple memory dereferences and conditional
> > checks inside ipv6_exthdrs_len for a varying amount of extension headers in IPv6
> > packets).
> >
> > The implementation had to handle both inner and outer layers in case of
> > encapsulation (as they can't use the same field).
> >
> > Performance tests for TCP stream over IPv6 with a varying amount of extension
> > headers demonstrate throughput improvement of ~0.7%.
> >
> > In addition, I fixed a potential existing problem:
> >  - The call to skb_set_inner_network_header at the beginning of
> >    ipv6_gro_complete calculates inner_network_header based on skb->data by
> >    calling skb_set_inner_network_header, and setting it to point to the beginning
> >    of the ip header.
> >  - If a packet is going to be handled by BIG TCP, the following code block is
> >    going to shift the packet header, and skb->data is going to be changed as
> >    well.
> >
> > When the two flows are combined, inner_network_header will point to the wrong
> > place.
> 
> net-next is closed.
> 
> If you think a fix is needed, please send a stand-alone and minimal
> patch so that we can discuss its merit.

I'll repost when net-next will be opened again.
Thanks.

> 
> Note :
> 
> BIG TCP only supports native IPv6, not encapsulated traffic,
> so we should not bother with inner_network_header yet.