netdev - Re: High contention on the sk_buff

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Date:	Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:54:37 +0100
From:	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>
To:	Vernon Mauery <vernux@...ibm.com>
Cc:	netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	rt-users <linux-rt-users@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: High contention on the sk_buff_head.lock

Vernon Mauery <vernux@...ibm.com> writes:
>
> So while this issue really hits -rt kernels hard, it has a real effect on
> mainline kernels as well.  The contention of the spinlocks is amplified
> when they get turned into rt-mutexes, which causes a double context switch.

The new adaptive spin heuristics that have been discussed some time
ago didn't help? Unsurprisingly making locks a lot more expensive
has drawbacks as you discovered.

>    &list->lock#3:      24517307       24643791           0.71        1286.62      56516392.42       34834296       44904018           0.60        164.79    31314786.02
>     -------------
>    &list->lock#3       15596927    [<ffffffff812474da>] dev_queue_xmit+0x2ea/0x468

The real "fix" would be probably to use a multi queue capable NIC
and a NIC driver that sets up multiple queues for TX (normally they
only do for RX). Then cores or a set of cores (often the number
of cores is larger than the number of NIC queues) could avoid this
problem. Disadvantage: more memory use.

But then again I'm not sure it's  worth it if the problem only
happens in out of tree RT.

-Andi

-- 
ak@...ux.intel.com -- Speaking for myself only.
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