tcp: TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT socket option

Idea of this patch is to add optional limitation of number of
unsent bytes in TCP sockets, to reduce usage of kernel memory.

TCP receiver might announce a big window, and TCP sender autotuning
might allow a large amount of bytes in write queue, but this has little
performance impact if a large part of this buffering is wasted :

Write queue needs to be large only to deal with large BDP, not
necessarily to cope with scheduling delays (incoming ACKS make room
for the application to queue more bytes)

For most workloads, using a value of 128 KB or less is OK to give
applications enough time to react to POLLOUT events in time
(or being awaken in a blocking sendmsg())

This patch adds two ways to set the limit :

1) Per socket option TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT

2) A sysctl (/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_notsent_lowat) for sockets
not using TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT socket option (or setting a zero value)
Default value being UINT_MAX (0xFFFFFFFF), meaning this has no effect.

This changes poll()/select()/epoll() to report POLLOUT
only if number of unsent bytes is below tp->nosent_lowat

Note this might increase number of sendmsg()/sendfile() calls
when using non blocking sockets,
and increase number of context switches for blocking sockets.

Note this is not related to SO_SNDLOWAT (as SO_SNDLOWAT is
defined as :
 Specify the minimum number of bytes in the buffer until
 the socket layer will pass the data to the protocol)

Tested:

netperf sessions, and watching /proc/net/protocols "memory" column for TCP

With 200 concurrent netperf -t TCP_STREAM sessions, amount of kernel memory
used by TCP buffers shrinks by ~55 % (20567 pages instead of 45458)

lpq83:~# echo -1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_notsent_lowat
lpq83:~# (super_netperf 200 -t TCP_STREAM -H remote -l 90 &); sleep 60 ; grep TCP /proc/net/protocols
TCPv6     1880      2   45458   no     208   yes  ipv6        y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  n  y  y  y  y  y
TCP       1696    508   45458   no     208   yes  kernel      y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  n  y  y  y  y  y

lpq83:~# echo 131072 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_notsent_lowat
lpq83:~# (super_netperf 200 -t TCP_STREAM -H remote -l 90 &); sleep 60 ; grep TCP /proc/net/protocols
TCPv6     1880      2   20567   no     208   yes  ipv6        y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  n  y  y  y  y  y
TCP       1696    508   20567   no     208   yes  kernel      y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  y  n  y  y  y  y  y

Using 128KB has no bad effect on the throughput or cpu usage
of a single flow, although there is an increase of context switches.

A bonus is that we hold socket lock for a shorter amount
of time and should improve latencies of ACK processing.

lpq83:~# echo -1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_notsent_lowat
lpq83:~# perf stat -e context-switches ./netperf -H 7.7.7.84 -t omni -l 20 -c -i10,3
OMNI Send TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to 7.7.7.84 () port 0 AF_INET : +/-2.500% @ 99% conf.
Local       Remote      Local  Elapsed Throughput Throughput  Local Local  Remote Remote Local   Remote  Service
Send Socket Recv Socket Send   Time               Units       CPU   CPU    CPU    CPU    Service Service Demand
Size        Size        Size   (sec)                          Util  Util   Util   Util   Demand  Demand  Units
Final       Final                                             %     Method %      Method
1651584     6291456     16384  20.00   17447.90   10^6bits/s  3.13  S      -1.00  U      0.353   -1.000  usec/KB

 Performance counter stats for './netperf -H 7.7.7.84 -t omni -l 20 -c -i10,3':

           412,514 context-switches

     200.034645535 seconds time elapsed

lpq83:~# echo 131072 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_notsent_lowat
lpq83:~# perf stat -e context-switches ./netperf -H 7.7.7.84 -t omni -l 20 -c -i10,3
OMNI Send TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to 7.7.7.84 () port 0 AF_INET : +/-2.500% @ 99% conf.
Local       Remote      Local  Elapsed Throughput Throughput  Local Local  Remote Remote Local   Remote  Service
Send Socket Recv Socket Send   Time               Units       CPU   CPU    CPU    CPU    Service Service Demand
Size        Size        Size   (sec)                          Util  Util   Util   Util   Demand  Demand  Units
Final       Final                                             %     Method %      Method
1593240     6291456     16384  20.00   17321.16   10^6bits/s  3.35  S      -1.00  U      0.381   -1.000  usec/KB

 Performance counter stats for './netperf -H 7.7.7.84 -t omni -l 20 -c -i10,3':

         2,675,818 context-switches

     200.029651391 seconds time elapsed

Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Cc: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Cc: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Acked-By: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

1 files changed, 13 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
index 1074290..53cea9b 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
@@ -516,6 +516,19 @@ tcp_wmem - vector of 3 INTEGERs: min, default, max
 	this value is ignored.
 	Default: between 64K and 4MB, depending on RAM size.
 
+tcp_notsent_lowat - UNSIGNED INTEGER
+	A TCP socket can control the amount of unsent bytes in its write queue,
+	thanks to TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT socket option. poll()/select()/epoll()
+	reports POLLOUT events if the amount of unsent bytes is below a per
+	socket value, and if the write queue is not full. sendmsg() will
+	also not add new buffers if the limit is hit.
+
+	This global variable controls the amount of unsent data for
+	sockets not using TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT. For these sockets, a change
+	to the global variable has immediate effect.
+
+	Default: UINT_MAX (0xFFFFFFFF)
+
 tcp_workaround_signed_windows - BOOLEAN
 	If set, assume no receipt of a window scaling option means the
 	remote TCP is broken and treats the window as a signed quantity.