netdev - [PATCH net-next v3] tcp: increase the default TCP scaling ratio

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Message-Id: <20240409164355.1721078-1-hli@netflix.com>
Date: Tue,  9 Apr 2024 09:43:55 -0700
From: Hechao Li <hli@...flix.com>
To: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
	"David S . Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
	Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
	Soheil Hassas Yeganeh <soheil@...gle.com>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	Hechao Li <hli@...flix.com>,
	Tycho Andersen <tycho@...ho.pizza>
Subject: [PATCH net-next v3] tcp: increase the default TCP scaling ratio

After commit dfa2f0483360 ("tcp: get rid of sysctl_tcp_adv_win_scale"),
we noticed an application-level timeout due to reduced throughput.

Before the commit, for a client that sets SO_RCVBUF to 65k, it takes
around 22 seconds to transfer 10M data. After the commit, it takes 40
seconds. Because our application has a 30-second timeout, this
regression broke the application.

The reason that it takes longer to transfer data is that
tp->scaling_ratio is initialized to a value that results in ~0.25 of
rcvbuf. In our case, SO_RCVBUF is set to 65536 by the application, which
translates to 2 * 65536 = 131,072 bytes in rcvbuf and hence a ~28k
initial receive window.

Later, even though the scaling_ratio is updated to a more accurate
skb->len/skb->truesize, which is ~0.66 in our environment, the window
stays at ~0.25 * rcvbuf. This is because tp->window_clamp does not
change together with the tp->scaling_ratio update when autotuning is
disabled due to SO_RCVBUF. As a result, the window size is capped at the
initial window_clamp, which is also ~0.25 * rcvbuf, and never grows
bigger.

Most modern applications let the kernel do autotuning, and benefit from
the increased scaling_ratio. But there are applications such as kafka
that has a default setting of SO_RCVBUF=64k.

This patch increases the initial scaling_ratio from ~25% to 50% in order
to make it backward compatible with the original default
sysctl_tcp_adv_win_scale for applications setting SO_RCVBUF.

Fixes: dfa2f0483360 ("tcp: get rid of sysctl_tcp_adv_win_scale")
Signed-off-by: Hechao Li <hli@...flix.com>
Reviewed-by: Tycho Andersen <tycho@...ho.pizza>
Reviewed-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20240402215405.432863-1-hli@netflix.com/

---
v1->v2: increase the default tcp scaling ratio instead of updating
window_clamp and update the commit message
v2->v3: Update commit message and add the link to v1
---
 include/net/tcp.h | 5 ++---
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/net/tcp.h b/include/net/tcp.h
index 6ae35199d3b3..2bcf30381d75 100644
--- a/include/net/tcp.h
+++ b/include/net/tcp.h
@@ -1539,11 +1539,10 @@ static inline int tcp_space_from_win(const struct sock *sk, int win)
 	return __tcp_space_from_win(tcp_sk(sk)->scaling_ratio, win);
 }

-/* Assume a conservative default of 1200 bytes of payload per 4K page.
+/* Assume a 50% default for skb->len/skb->truesize ratio.
  * This may be adjusted later in tcp_measure_rcv_mss().
  */
-#define TCP_DEFAULT_SCALING_RATIO ((1200 << TCP_RMEM_TO_WIN_SCALE) / \
-				   SKB_TRUESIZE(4096))
+#define TCP_DEFAULT_SCALING_RATIO (1 << (TCP_RMEM_TO_WIN_SCALE - 1))

 static inline void tcp_scaling_ratio_init(struct sock *sk)
 {
-- 
2.34.1