dccp ccid-3: A lower bound for the inter-packet scheduling algorithm

This fixes a subtle bug in the calculation of the inter-packet gap and shows
that t_delta, as it is currently used, is not needed.

The algorithm from RFC 5348, 8.3 below continually computes a send time t_nom,
which is initialised with the current time t_now; t_gran = 1E6 / HZ specifies
the scheduling granularity, s the packet size, and X the sending rate:

  t_distance = t_nom - t_now;		// in microseconds
  t_delta    = min(t_ipi, t_gran) / 2;	// `delta' parameter in microseconds

  if (t_distance >= t_delta) {
	reschedule after (t_distance / 1000) milliseconds;
  } else {
  	t_ipi  = s / X;			// inter-packet interval in usec
	t_nom += t_ipi;			// compute the next send time
	send packet now;
  }

Problem:
--------
Rescheduling requires a conversion into milliseconds (sk_reset_timer()). The
highest jiffy resolution with HZ=1000 is 1 millisecond, so using a higher
granularity does not make much sense here.

As a consequence, values of t_distance < 1000 are truncated to 0. This issue
has so far been resolved by using instead

  if (t_distance >= t_delta + 1000)
	reschedule after (t_distance / 1000) milliseconds;

This is unnecessarily large, a lower bound is t_delta' = max(t_delta, 1000).
And it implies a further simplification:

 a) when HZ >= 500, then t_delta <= t_gran/2 = 10^6/(2*HZ) <= 1000, so that
    t_delta' = MAX(1000, t_delta) = 1000 (constant value);

 b) when HZ < 500, then t_delta = 1/2*MIN(rtt, t_ipi, t_gran) <= t_gran/2,
    so that 1000 <= t_delta' <= t_gran/2.

The maximum error of using a constant t_delta in (b) is less than half a jiffy.

Fix:
----
The patch replaces t_delta with a constant, whose value depends on CONFIG_HZ,
changing the above algorithm to:

  if (t_distance >= t_delta')
	reschedule after (t_distance / 1000) milliseconds;

where t_delta' = 10^6/(2*HZ) if HZ < 500, and t_delta' = 1000 otherwise.

Signed-off-by: Gerrit Renker <gerrit@erg.abdn.ac.uk>

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.c b/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.c
index 278e17069322..e9ca0983ac58 100644
--- a/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.c
+++ b/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.c
@@ -91,19 +91,16 @@ static inline u64 rfc3390_initial_rate(struct sock *sk)
         return scaled_div(w_init << 6, hc->tx_rtt);
 }
 
-/*
- * Recalculate t_ipi and delta (should be called whenever X changes)
+/**
+ * ccid3_update_send_interval  -  Calculate new t_ipi = s / X_inst
+ * This respects the granularity of X_inst (64 * bytes/second).
  */
 static void ccid3_update_send_interval(struct ccid3_hc_tx_sock *hc)
 {
-        /* Calculate new t_ipi = s / X_inst (X_inst is in 64 * bytes/second) */
         hc->tx_t_ipi = scaled_div32(((u64)hc->tx_s) << 6, hc->tx_x);
 
-        /* Calculate new delta by delta = min(t_ipi / 2, t_gran / 2) */
-        hc->tx_delta = min_t(u32, hc->tx_t_ipi / 2, TFRC_OPSYS_HALF_TIME_GRAN);
-
-        ccid3_pr_debug("t_ipi=%u, delta=%u, s=%u, X=%u\n", hc->tx_t_ipi,
-                       hc->tx_delta, hc->tx_s, (unsigned)(hc->tx_x >> 6));
+        ccid3_pr_debug("t_ipi=%u, s=%u, X=%u\n", hc->tx_t_ipi,
+                       hc->tx_s, (unsigned)(hc->tx_x >> 6));
 }
 
 static u32 ccid3_hc_tx_idle_rtt(struct ccid3_hc_tx_sock *hc, ktime_t now)
@@ -332,15 +329,15 @@ static int ccid3_hc_tx_send_packet(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb)
                 delay = ktime_us_delta(hc->tx_t_nom, now);
                 ccid3_pr_debug("delay=%ld\n", (long)delay);
                 /*
-                 *      Scheduling of packet transmissions [RFC 3448, 4.6]
+                 *      Scheduling of packet transmissions (RFC 5348, 8.3)
                  *
                  * if (t_now > t_nom - delta)
                  *       // send the packet now
                  * else
                  *       // send the packet in (t_nom - t_now) milliseconds.
                  */
-                if (delay - (s64)hc->tx_delta >= 1000)
-                        return (u32)delay / 1000L;
+                if (delay >= TFRC_T_DELTA)
+                        return (u32)delay / USEC_PER_MSEC;
 
                 ccid3_hc_tx_update_win_count(hc, now);
                 break;