Re: RFC: issues concerning the next NAPI interface

Linas Vepstas [off-list ref] wrote:

On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 03:59:16PM +0200, Jan-Bernd Themann wrote:

quoted

3) On modern systems the incoming packets are processed very fast. Especially
on SMP systems when we use multiple queues we process only a few packets
per napi poll cycle. So NAPI does not work very well here and the interrupt
rate is still high.

I saw this too, on a system that is "modern" but not terribly fast, and
only slightly (2-way) smp. (the spidernet)

I experimented wih various solutions, none were terribly exciting.  The
thing that killed all of them was a crazy test case that someone sprung on
me:  They had written a worst-case network ping-pong app: send one
packet, wait for reply, send one packet, etc.

If I waited (indefinitely) for a second packet to show up, the test case
completely stalled (since no second packet would ever arrive).  And if I
introduced a timer to wait for a second packet, then I just increased
the latency in the response to the first packet, and this was noticed,
and folks complained.

Possible solution / possible brainfart:

Introduce a timer, but don't start to use it to combine packets unless you
receive n packets within the timeframe. If you receive less than m packets
within one timeframe, stop using the timer. The system should now have a
decent response time when the network is idle, and when the network is
busy, nobody will complain about the latency.-)
-- 
Funny quotes:
22. When everything's going your way, you're in the wrong lane and and going
    the wrong way.
Friß, Spammer: rsRxhvmk@CaR.7eggert.dyndns.org m@z3T.7eggert.dyndns.org