Re: [PATCH v2] tcp: detect loss above high_seq in recovery

From: Yuchung Cheng <redacted>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:42:21 -0800

Correctly implement a loss detection heuristic: New sequences (above
high_seq) sent during the fast recovery are deemed lost when higher
sequences are SACKed.

Current code does not catch these losses, because tcp_mark_head_lost()
does not check packets beyond high_seq. The fix is straight-forward by
checking packets until the highest sacked packet. In addition, all the
FLAG_DATA_LOST logic are in-effective and redundant and can be removed.

Update the loss heuristic comments. The algorithm above is documented
as heuristic B, but it is redundant too because heuristic A already
covers B.

Note that this change only marks some forward-retransmitted packets LOST.
It does NOT forbid TCP performing further CWR on new losses. A potential
follow-up patch under preparation is to perform another CWR on "new"
losses such as
1) sequence above high_seq is lost (by resetting high_seq to snd_nxt)
2) retransmission is lost.

Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <redacted>

Applied.