RE: Debugging Network Performance

Allen,
KGDB may be a good start. netif_rx() is where the packet gets passed to the
stack. It basically throws the packet on a linklist for ip_rcv() in
ip_input.c to pick up and start processing it through the stack until it
passes the results to the application. This is tough stuff. Let me know how
you make out.

I would guess the IP stack has not changed much between kernels. I would be
more concerned about how the scheduler is working and other kernel tasks.

Mark K. Wisner
Advisory Software Engineer
IBM Microelectronics
3039 Cornwallis Rd
RTP, NC 27709
Tel. 919-254-7191
Fax 919-543-7575


"Allen Curtis" [off-list ref]@lists.linuxppc.org on 06/04/2002 09:30:16
AM

Please respond to [off-list ref]

Sent by:    owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org


To:    Mark Wisner/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS
cc:    <redacted>
Subject:    RE: Debugging Network Performance

Netperf can give you a vary detailed report about network performance. If
you think your problem is related to network hardware problems,
look at the
errors listed in "ifconfig". This should tell you if you are getting bad
packets or dropping packets.

I did fix a problem in the driver and now there are no error reported by
ifconfig.

If you think it is a kernel problem some benchmarks may help you narrow
down the problem. Networks are pretty fluid and sometimes hard to get
reproducible results. When I try to determine driver/kernel network
perfomance I try to use an isolated network where I have control over all
traffic or I use test hardware such as IXIA or Smartbits.

All testing is done on an isolated network. I do not believe that the
problem is in the driver itself. The driver has not changed significantly.
I
do need to check the error path since it appears that errors actually help
performance.

What is the best way to track packet processing through the kernel?


** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/