The link congestion algorithm used until now implies two problems.
- It is too generous towards lower-level messages in situations of high
load by giving "absolute" bandwidth guarantees to the different
priority levels. LOW traffic is guaranteed 10%, MEDIUM is guaranted
20%, HIGH is guaranteed 30%, and CRITICAL is guaranteed 40% of the
available bandwidth. But, in the absence of higher level traffic, the
ratio between two distinct levels becomes unreasonable. E.g. if there
is only LOW and MEDIUM traffic on a system, the former is guaranteed
1/3 of the bandwidth, and the latter 2/3. This again means that if
there is e.g. one LOW user and 10 MEDIUM users, the former will have
33.3% of the bandwidth, and the others will have to compete for the
remainder, i.e. each will end up with 6.7% of the capacity.
- Packets of type MSG_BUNDLER are created at SYSTEM importance level,
but only after the packets bundled into it have passed the congestion
test for their own respective levels. Since bundled packets don't
result in incrementing the level counter for their own importance,
only occasionally for the SYSTEM level counter, they do in practice
obtain SYSTEM level importance. Hence, the current implementation
provides a gap in the congestion algorithm that in the worst case
may lead to a link reset.
We now refine the congestion algorithm as follows:
- A message is accepted to the link backlog only if its own level
counter, and all superior level counters, permit it.
- The importance of a created bundle packet is set according to its
contents. A bundle packet created from messges at levels LOW to
CRITICAL is given importance level CRITICAL, while a bundle created
from a SYSTEM level message is given importance SYSTEM. In the latter
case only subsequent SYSTEM level messages are allowed to be bundled
into it.
This solves the first problem described above, by making the bandwidth
guarantee relative to the total number of users at all levels; only
the upper limit for each level remains absolute. In the example
described above, the single LOW user would use 1/11th of the bandwidth,
the same as each of the ten MEDIUM users, but he still has the same
guarantee against starvation as the latter ones.
The fix also solves the second problem. If the CRITICAL level is filled
up by bundle packets of that level, no lower level packets will be
accepted any more.
Suggested-by: Gergely Kiss <gergely.kiss@ericsson.com>
Reviewed-by: Ying Xue <ying.xue@windriver.com>
Signed-off-by: Jon Maloy <jon.maloy@ericsson.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
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