Re: Is this skb recycle buffer helpful to improve Linux network stack performance?

Here is the modifications I made:
//skbuff.h
//I added the folloing definitions
#define MAX_POOL_SIZE 4096
unsigned char *skbuff_data_pool[MAX_POOL_SIZE];
int skbPoolHead, skbPoolTail;


//skb_init()
//I add the following codes:
 for(i=0;i<MAX_POOL_SIZE;i++)
         skbuff_data_pool[i] = NULL;
 skbPoolHead = skbPoolTail = 0;


//alloc_skb()
//I made the following changes
if (skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolHead])
 {
   data = skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolHead];
  skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolHead] = NULL;
  if (++skbPoolHead == MAX_POOL_SIZE)
   skbPoolHead = 0;
 }
 else{ //Original path
  size = SKB_DATA_ALIGN(size);
  data = kmalloc(size + sizeof(struct skb_shared_info), gfp_mask);
  }

//skb_release_data()
//I made the following changes:
  if ((skbPoolHead == skbPoolTail) && (skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolHead] != 
NULL))
  //Original path
   kfree(skb->head);
                else{
   if (skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolTail])
    panic("Tail pointer must be null");

   skbuff_data_pool[skbPoolTail] = skb->head;
                        if (++skbPoolTail == MAX_POOL_SIZE)
    skbPoolTail = 0;
  }

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Dumazet" <redacted>
To: "LeoY" <redacted>
Cc: <redacted>
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: Is this skb recycle buffer helpful to improve Linux network 
stack performance?

LeoY a écrit :

quoted

Hi,

Motivation: we noticed alloc_skb()/kfree() used lots of clock ticks when
handling heavy network traffic. As Linux kernel always need to call
kmalloc()/kfree() to allocate and deallocate a skb DATA buffer(not 
sk_buff)
for each incoming/outgoing packet, we try to reduce the frequence of 
calling
these memory functions.

I wangt to set up a ring buffer in Linux kernel(skbuff.c) and recycle 
those
skb data buffers. The basic idea is as follows:
1. Create a ring buffer. This ring buffer has a head pointer which points 
to
the virtual address of the data buffer to be reused; It also has a tail
pointer, which can be used to store the virutal address of skb data 
buffer
for those transmitted packets.
2. If the ring buffer is full, just use normal kmalloc()/kfree() 
operation
to manager those skb data buffers instead of recycling them.
3. if any DATA buffer is available, Instead of calling kmalloc(), assign 
a
skb data buffer directly from ring buffer to the incoming packets.
4. If ring buffer still has space, Instead of calling kfree(), store the 
skb
data buffer into the ring buffer.
5. if the head and tail pointer overlap and head pointer is not empty, 
just
stop accpeting more DATA buffer until some DATA buffer is used for the
incoming packets.

I tested my method on the latest Linux kernel 2.6.13.3, it works with the
normal traffic; However, the Linux kernel crashed under the heavy network
traffic.

Any idea to make this ring bufer work under the heavy network traffic?

Your idea seems interesting, but you forgot to post a link to the code you 
wrote. How do you want us to help you ?

Eric