Date:	Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:27:25 -0400
From:	Steven Brudenell <steven.brudenell@...il.com>
To:	Jarek Poplawski <jarkao2@...il.com>
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: tbf/htb qdisc limitations

> I'm not sure you checked how the "burst" works, and doubt it could
> help you here. Anyway, do you think: rate 2KB/s with burst 5GB
> config would be useful for you?

i actually really do want something like 2KB/s with 5GB burst
(modifying parameters such that burst + rate * 30 days <= 5GB, but you
get the idea). but this isn't possible given the implementation:

i see that overall, virtual "tokens" map to "scheduler ticks", where a
"scheduler tick" is 64ns. (net/sched/sch_{tbf,htb}.c,
include/net/pkt_sched.h -- these 64ns units are called "ticks" despite
being unrelated to HZ). the "burst" parameter is also stored and
passed from userspace as a u32. so, the maximum configurable burst in
both cases is rate * 275s, since we can only track 275s worth of
"scheduler ticks" in a u32 ( (1<<32) / NSEC_PER_SEC * 64 =~ 275s ).

> My proposal is you don't bother with 1) and 2), but first do the
> hack in tbf or htb directly, using or omitting rate tables, how
> you like, and test this idea.

i'll give it a shot, though given that i hate writing the same code
twice, i would prefer to know the right way to change netlink before i
write a functional test.

due to the implementation coupling i don't see any way to make any
permanent change *without* changing the netlink interface -- even
changing that u32 to a u64, which would only need to be a u64 in
userspace because userspace does the munging today!

(what's worse, today userspace has to specify the full rate table over
netlink, instead of just specifying the rate and having the kernel
driver compute the table or whatever other data structure it deems
necessary. i think decoupling interface from implementation is a
worthy goal by itself. if they were decoupled, i could have just coded
a patch and not bothered y'all in the first place....)

> But it seems the right way is to collect monthly stats with some
> userspace tool and change qdisc config dynamically. You might
> look at network admins' lists for small ISPs exemplary scripts
> doing such nasty things to their users, or have a look at ppp
> accounting tools.

<non technical sidetrack>
i disagree outright that a userspace tool is the "right" way to solve
my constraints.

my constraints are:
1) i need to guarantee i never ever go over the monthly transfer limit
(bad experiences with Comcast... you can check out of Red Tape Hotel
any time you like, but you can never leave).
2) i want to be able to transfer short bursts at top speed whenever
possible (that's what i'm paying for in the first place).
3) i need to ration transfer usage so i am never stuck in a situation
of being limited to snail speeds until the end of the month (on a
Comcast connection in my area, i can reasonably sustain 2MB/sec
downstream, which eats 250GB in ~36 hours, so this constraint becomes
important).

tbf with a large burst size seems ideal for my constraints. i can't
quantify this, but it seems like no simpler strategy satisfies the
constraints well and no more complex strategy is necessary. i think
any userspace solution i could write would end up trying to emulate
tbf with large burst.

a userspace tool updating qdisc parameters, even if run in an infinite
loop, would always have a big chunky time resolution compared to an
inline packet shaper (which is important for #2, and for #1 to a
degree). i could write a packet shaper in userspace, but this does not
make sense to given that kernel qos already exists, and already has a
tbf implementation that just needs a little love.
</non technical sidetrack>

given all that, i'd just like to know

1) whether it's forbidden or bad to do floating point math in a packet
scheduler, and

2) the best way to go about making breaking changes to netlink.
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