Subject: [PATCH net-next v5 0/5] veth: add Byte Queue Limits (BQL) support

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 15:21:52 +0200

From: Jesper Dangaard Brouer <[email-masked]>

This series adds BQL (Byte Queue Limits) to the veth driver, reducing
latency by dynamically limiting in-flight packets in the ptr_ring and
moving buffering into the qdisc where AQM algorithms can act on it.

Problem:
  veth's 256-entry ptr_ring acts as a "dark buffer" -- packets queued
  there are invisible to the qdisc's AQM.  Under load, the ring fills
  completely (DRV_XOFF backpressure), adding up to 256 packets of
  unmanaged latency before the qdisc even sees congestion.

Solution:
  BQL (STACK_XOFF) dynamically limits in-flight packets, stopping the
  queue before the ring fills.  This keeps the ring shallow and pushes
  excess packets into the qdisc, where sojourn-based AQM can measure
  and drop them.

  Test setup: veth pair, UDP flood, 13000 iptables rules in consumer
  namespace (slows NAPI-64 cycle to ~6-7ms), ping measures RTT under load.

                   BQL off                    BQL on
  fq_codel:  RTT ~22ms, 4% loss         RTT ~1.3ms, 0% loss
  sfq:       RTT ~24ms, 0% loss         RTT ~1.5ms, 0% loss

  BQL reduces ping RTT by ~17x for both qdiscs.  Consumer throughput
  is unchanged (~10K pps) -- BQL adds no overhead.

CoDel bug discovered during BQL development:
  Our original motivation for BQL was fq_codel ping loss observed under
  load (4-26% depending on NAPI cycle time).  Investigating this led us
  to discover a bug in the CoDel implementation: codel_dequeue() does
  not reset vars->first_above_time when a flow goes empty, contrary to
  the reference algorithm.  This causes stale CoDel state to persist
  across empty periods in fq_codel's per-flow queues, penalizing sparse
  flows like ICMP ping.  A fix for this has been applied to the net tree
  815980fe6dbb ("net_sched: codel: fix stale state for empty flows in fq_codel")
  
  BQL remains valuable independently: it reduces RTT by ~17x by moving
  buffering from the dark ptr_ring into the qdisc.  Additionally, BQL
  clears STACK_XOFF per-SKB as each packet completes, rather than
  batch-waking after 64 packets (DRV_XOFF).  This keeps sojourn times
  below fq_codel's target, preventing CoDel from entering dropping
  state on non-congested flows in the first place.

Key design decisions:
  - Charge-under-lock in veth_xdp_rx(): The BQL charge must precede
    the ptr_ring produce, because the NAPI consumer can run on another
    CPU and complete the SKB immediately after it becomes visible.  To
    avoid a pre-charge/undo pattern, the charge is done under the
    ptr_ring producer_lock after confirming the ring is not full.  BQL
    is only charged when produce is guaranteed to succeed, keeping
    num_queued monotonically increasing.  HARD_TX_LOCK already
    serializes dql_queued() (veth requires a qdisc for BQL); the
    ptr_ring lock additionally would allow noqueue to work correctly.

  - Per-SKB BQL tracking via pointer tag: A VETH_BQL_FLAG bit in the
    ptr_ring pointer records whether each SKB was BQL-charged.  This is
    necessary because the qdisc can be replaced live (noqueue->sfq or
    vice versa) while SKBs are in-flight -- the completion side must
    know the charge state that was decided at enqueue time.

  - IFF_NO_QUEUE + BQL coexistence: A new dev->bql flag enables BQL
    sysfs exposure for IFF_NO_QUEUE devices that opt in to DQL
    accounting, without changing IFF_NO_QUEUE semantics.

Background and acknowledgments:
  Mike Freemon reported the veth dark buffer problem internally at
  Cloudflare and showed that recompiling the kernel with a ptr_ring
  size of 30 (down from 256) made fq_codel work dramatically better.
  This was the primary motivation for a proper BQL solution that
  achieves the same effect dynamically without a kernel rebuild.

  Chris Arges wrote a reproducer for the dark buffer latency problem:
    https://github.com/netoptimizer/veth-backpressure-performance-testing
  This is where we first observed ping packets being dropped under
  fq_codel, which became our secondary motivation for BQL.  In
  production we switched to SFQ on veth devices as a workaround.

  Jonas Koeppeler provided extensive testing and code review.
  Together we discovered that the fq_codel ping loss was actually a
  12-year-old CoDel bug (stale first_above_time in empty flows), not
  caused by the dark buffer itself.

Patch overview:
  1. veth: fix OOB txq access in veth_poll() with asymmetric queue counts
  2. net: add dev->bql flag to allow BQL sysfs for IFF_NO_QUEUE devices
  3. veth: implement Byte Queue Limits (BQL) for latency reduction
  4. veth: add tx_timeout watchdog as BQL safety net
  5. net: sched: add timeout count to NETDEV WATCHDOG message

Jesper Dangaard Brouer (5):
  veth: fix OOB txq access in veth_poll() with asymmetric queue counts
  net: add dev->bql flag to allow BQL sysfs for IFF_NO_QUEUE devices
  veth: implement Byte Queue Limits (BQL) for latency reduction
  veth: add tx_timeout watchdog as BQL safety net
  net: sched: add timeout count to NETDEV WATCHDOG message

 .../networking/net_cachelines/net_device.rst  |   1 +
 drivers/net/veth.c                            | 107 ++++++++++++++++--
 include/linux/netdevice.h                     |   2 +
 net/core/net-sysfs.c                          |   8 +-
 net/sched/sch_generic.c                       |   8 +-
 5 files changed, 109 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

V4: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email-masked]/

Changes since V4:
  - New patch 1: fix OOB txq access in veth_poll() when veth peers have
    asymmetric RX/TX queue counts.  XDP redirect can deliver frames to
    an RX queue index that exceeds the peer's TX queue count, causing
    an out-of-bounds netdev_get_tx_queue() access.  Found by sashiko-bot.
  - Patch 3 (veth BQL): wake stopped peer txqs in veth_napi_del_range()
    to clear DRV_XOFF after NAPI teardown.  A concurrent veth_xmit()
    can set DRV_XOFF between rcu_assign_pointer(napi, NULL) and
    synchronize_net(); with NAPI gone, no veth_poll() clears it.
    Guarded by netif_running() to skip during device close.

V3: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email-masked]/

Changes since V3:
  - Drop selftest patch (patch 5 from V3) per maintainer request.
  - Rebase on latest net-next.

V2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email-masked]/

Changes since V2:
  - Patch 2 (veth BQL): fix syzbot WARNING in veth_napi_del_range():
    clamp BQL reset loop to peer's real_num_tx_queues.  The loop was
    iterating dev->real_num_rx_queues but indexing peer's txq[], which
    goes out of bounds when the peer has fewer TX queues (e.g. veth
    enslaved to a bond with XDP attached).

V1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email-masked]/

Changes since V1:
  - Patch 1 (dev->bql flag): add kdoc entry for @bql in struct net_device.
  - Patch 2 (veth BQL): charge fixed VETH_BQL_UNIT (1) per packet instead
    of skb->len.  veth has no link speed; the ptr_ring is packet-indexed.
    Byte-based charging lets small packets sneak many entries into the ring.
    Testing: min-size packet flood causes 3.7x ping RTT degradation with
    skb->len vs no change with fixed-unit charging.
  - Patch 3 (tx_timeout watchdog): fix race with peer NAPI: replace
    netdev_tx_reset_queue() with clear_bit(STACK_XOFF) + netif_tx_wake_queue()
    to avoid dql_reset() racing with concurrent dql_completed().
  - Cover letter: update CoDel fix reference to merged commit in net tree.

Cc: "David S. Miller" <[email-masked]>
Cc: Eric Dumazet <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jakub Kicinski <[email-masked]>
Cc: Paolo Abeni <[email-masked]>
Cc: Simon Horman <[email-masked]>
Cc: Chris Arges <[email-masked]>
Cc: Mike Freemon <[email-masked]>
Cc: Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jonas Köppeler <[email-masked]>
Cc: Breno Leitao <[email-masked]>
Cc: Simon Schippers <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]

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