Date:	Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:54:37 +0200
From:	"Stefanik Gábor" <netrolller.3d@...il.com>
To:	"David Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org, vinay@...ux.vnet.ibm.com,
	krkumar2@...ibm.com, mchan@...adcom.com, Matheos.Worku@....com,
	linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/39]: New multiqueue TX implementation.

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 9:01 AM, David Miller <davem@...emloft.net> wrote:
>
> I'm finally at the point where I can post a patch series that actually
> does something and I know works for at least one card :-)
>
> The backlog and batching bits are sidelined for the time being.
> Don't worry, we'll get back to that soon enough :)
>
> This can all be found in:
>
>        kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-tx-2.6.git
>
> which uses net-next-2.6 as it's origin.
>
> The summarized state is:
>
> 1) Everything in the transmit path is multiqueue aware.
>
> 2) Qdisc and classification is not.  We hook up default
>   qdiscs to each TX queue when the device comes up,
>   but the configuration infrastructure still hardcodes
>   it's operations to TX queue zero.  This is a temporary
>   situation.
>
> 3) I rewrote the mac80211 QoS support using the new
>   netdev hook added for TX hashing.  I know it is broken
>   and not as fully functional as the qdisc implementation.
>   It can and will be fixed to match existing functionality.
>   The broken parts are:
>
>   a) It no longer does dropping.
>   b) Requeueing is not implemented.
>
>   Dropping is easy to add, and we need to investigate
>   whether the requeueing is really even useful.
>
> I have tested basic TCP stream functionality on the NIU
> driver multiqueue support.  I verified that different
> TCP streams end up on different TX queues.
>
> I went through the existing multiqueue capable drivers and
> made sure they use the new interfaces properly.  I anticipate
> that they will largely still work properly.
>
> For the qdisc/cls issues, I intend to simply use replication as a
> first step.  So if a qdisc or classifier config change comes in,
> we just replicate that change to all of the TX queues.  The biggest
> pain in the butt will be rolling things back if the first few
> queues succeed but then one fails.
>
> The observant will note that egress and ingress qdisc handling is now
> more consolidated than ever.  I expect many more simplications in this
> area.
>
> Some of these config changes make non-trivial things happen, so what I
> might do is split qdisc/cls config into two passes.  The first pass
> implements the allocation of resources (memory, etc.), the second
> pass commits the changes and cannot fail.  So if anything in the
> first pass fails, we simply release everything, cleanup, and return
> an error.
>
> Quick 'n dirty multiqueue driver port:
>
> 1) alloc_etherdev() --> alloc_etherdev_mq().  Specify the maximum
>   number of TX queues that the device might be using.
>
> 2) Once you know how many TX queues will be in use, set
>   netdev->real_num_tx_queues to that value.
>
>   Do not modify this value when the device is up.  It may only be
>   changed while the device is down.
>
> 3) In ->hard_start_xmit(), skb_get_queue_mapping() tells you which
>   TX queue to use.  It will always be in the range 0 --> real_num_tx_queue
>
> 4) When operating on a specific TX queue, use netif_tx_{start,stop,wake}_queue()
>
> 5) When you want to operate on all queues (bringing the device down,
>   bringing it up, resetting, changing some MAC configuration that
>   requires full device quiesce) use netif_tx_{start,stop,wake}_all_queues().
>
> And then you're done.  Really, it's as simply as that.  The final
> patch in this series that implements TX multiqueue for NIU is a good
> guide for other driver authors.
>
> net/core/dev.c:simple_tx_hash() implements the current hashing
> algorithm.  This is just to get things going, and will in the end be
> augmented with a user-configurable algorithm selection.
>
> There is a lot to clean up, fix up, and flesh out.  But at least
> we're this far along.  More details are in the commit log messages.
>
> You'll notice that a lot of it is just moving things around, making
> interfaces work with queue objects instead of net devices, and
> finally deciding at each spot "what does this operation mean in
> a TX multiqueue setting?"
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>

Patch 15/39 appears to be missing from the series.

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