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From: Ben Greear <greearb-my8/4N5VtI7c+919tysfdA@public•gmane.org>
To: "Grumbach,
	Emmanuel"
	<emmanuel.grumbach-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public•gmane.org>,
	"linux-wireless-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public•gmane.org"
	<linux-wireless-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public•gmane.org>
Cc: "netdev-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public•gmane.org"
	<netdev-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public•gmane.org>,
	Stephen Hemminger
	<stephen-OTpzqLSitTUnbdJkjeBofR2eb7JE58TQ@public•gmane.org>,
	Dave Taht <dave.taht-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public•gmane.org>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet-T1hC0tSOHrs@public•gmane.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC v2] iwlwifi: pcie: transmit queue auto-sizing
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2016 13:14:13 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <56B3BF25.8080509@candelatech.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <0BA3FCBA62E2DC44AF3030971E174FB32EA02656-Jy8z56yoSI9wl47ZQwxUxrfspsVTdybXVpNB7YpNyf8@public.gmane.org>

On 02/04/2016 12:56 PM, Grumbach, Emmanuel wrote:
>
>
> On 02/04/2016 10:46 PM, Ben Greear wrote:
>> On 02/04/2016 12:16 PM, Emmanuel Grumbach wrote:
>>> As many (all?) WiFi devices, Intel WiFi devices have
>>> transmit queues which have 256 transmit descriptors
>>> each and each descriptor corresponds to an MPDU.
>>> This means that when it is full, the queue contains
>>> 256 * ~1500 bytes to be transmitted (if we don't have
>>> A-MSDUs). The purpose of those queues is to have enough
>>> packets to be ready for transmission so that when the device
>>> gets an opportunity to transmit (TxOP), it can take as many
>>> packets as the spec allows and aggregate them into one
>>> A-MPDU or even several A-MPDUs if we are using bursts.
>> I guess this is only really usable if you have exactly one
>> peer connected (ie, in station mode)?
>>
>> Otherwise, you could have one slow peer and one fast one,
>> and then I suspect this would not work so well?
>
> Yes. I guess this one (big) limitation. I guess that what would happen
> in this case is that the the latency would constantly jitter. But I also
> noticed that I could reduce the transmit queue to 130 descriptors
> (instead of 256) and still reach maximal throughput because we can
> refill the queues quickly enough.
> In iwlwifi, we have plans to have one queue for each peer.
> This is under development. Not sure when it'll be ready. It also requires
> firmware change obviously.

Per-peer queues will probably be nice, especially if we can keep the
buffer bloat manageable.

>> For reference, ath10k has around 1400 tx descriptors, though
>> in practice not all are usable, and in stock firmware, I'm guessing
>> the NIC will never be able to actually fill up it's tx descriptors
>> and stop traffic.  Instead, it just allows the stack to try to
>> TX, then drops the frame...
>
> 1400 descriptors, ok... but they are not organised in queues?
> (forgive my ignorance of athX drivers)

I think all the details are in the firmware, at least for now.

The firmware details are probably not something I should go into, but suffice it to say
its complex and varies between firmware versions in non-trivial ways.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb-my8/4N5VtI7c+919tysfdA@public•gmane.org>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com

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  parent reply	other threads:[~2016-02-04 21:14 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2016-02-04 20:12 [RFC] iwlwifi: pcie: transmit queue auto-sizing Emmanuel Grumbach
2016-02-04 20:16 ` [RFC RESEND] " Emmanuel Grumbach
     [not found]   ` <1454616972-21709-1-git-send-email-emmanuel.grumbach-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-04 22:06     ` Dave Taht
2016-02-07 12:39       ` Grumbach, Emmanuel
     [not found] ` <1454616764-19841-1-git-send-email-emmanuel.grumbach-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-04 20:16   ` [RFC v2] " Emmanuel Grumbach
     [not found]     ` <1454616988-21901-1-git-send-email-emmanuel.grumbach-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-04 20:45       ` Ben Greear
2016-02-04 20:56         ` Grumbach, Emmanuel
     [not found]           ` <0BA3FCBA62E2DC44AF3030971E174FB32EA02656-Jy8z56yoSI9wl47ZQwxUxrfspsVTdybXVpNB7YpNyf8@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-04 21:14             ` Ben Greear [this message]
     [not found]               ` <56B3BF25.8080509-my8/4N5VtI7c+919tysfdA@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-05  8:44                 ` Michal Kazior
     [not found]                   ` <CA+BoTQm+xTU6o7CMbCHr=bSgp7WE5btE4pMki5XJWiXaOG4SdA-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-05 16:47                     ` Dave Taht
2016-02-08 10:00                       ` Michal Kazior
     [not found]                         ` <CA+BoTQ=BMsXHEcg0LTEcsVLVUBYLmQ2F_oRghFPLty1XD-L9wQ-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
2016-02-08 10:17                           ` Emmanuel Grumbach
2016-02-05 16:48                     ` Ben Greear
2016-02-08 10:04                     ` Emmanuel Grumbach

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