dccp ccid-3: Bug fix 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. And hence replaced.

The algorithm from RFC 3448, 4.6 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;
  }


1) Description of the bug
-------------------------
Rescheduling requires a conversion into milliseconds, due to this call chain:

 * ccid3_hc_tx_send_packet() returns a timeout in milliseconds,
 * this value is converted by msecs_to_jiffies() in dccp_write_xmit(),
 * and finally used as jiffy-expires-value for 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;

The bug is in artificially inflating t_delta to t_delta' = t_delta + 1000. This
is unnecessarily large, a more adequate value is t_delta' = max(t_delta, 1000).


2) Consequences of using the corrected t_delta'
-----------------------------------------------
Since t_delta <= t_gran/2 = 10^6/(2*HZ), we have t_delta <= 1000 as long as
HZ >= 500. This means that t_delta' = max(1000, t_delta) is constant at 1000.

On the other hand, when using a coarse HZ value of HZ < 500, we have three
sub-cases that can all be reduced to using another constant of t_gran/2.

 (a) The first case arises when t_ipi > t_gran. Here t_delta' is the constant
     t_delta' = max(1000, t_gran/2) = t_gran/2.

 (b) If t_ipi <= 2000 < t_gran = 10^6/HZ usec, then t_delta = t_ipi/2 <= 1000,
     so that t_delta' = max(1000, t_delta) = 1000 < t_gran/2. 

 (c) If 2000 < t_ipi <= t_gran, we have t_delta' = max(t_delta, 1000) = t_ipi/2.

In the second and third cases we have delay values less than t_gran/2, which is
in the order of less than or equal to half a jiffy. 

How these are treated depends on how fractions of a jiffy are handled: they
are either always rounded down to 0, or always rounded up to 1 jiffy (assuming
non-zero values). In both cases the error is on average in the order of 50%.

Thus we are not increasing the error when in the second/third case we replace
a value less than t_gran/2 with 0, by setting t_delta' to the constant t_gran/2.


3) Summary
----------
Fixing (1) and considering (2), 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, 14 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.h b/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.h
index 0cfcfff8f5fb..92a5e1688a07 100644
--- a/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.h
+++ b/net/dccp/ccids/ccid3.h
@@ -47,12 +47,23 @@
 /* Two seconds as per RFC 3448 4.2 */
 #define TFRC_INITIAL_TIMEOUT	   (2 * USEC_PER_SEC)
 
-/* In usecs - half the scheduling granularity as per RFC3448 4.6 */
-#define TFRC_OPSYS_HALF_TIME_GRAN  (USEC_PER_SEC / (2 * HZ))
-
 /* Parameter t_mbi from [RFC 3448, 4.3]: backoff interval in seconds */
 #define TFRC_T_MBI		   64
 
+/*
+ * The t_delta parameter (RFC 3448, 4.6): delays of less than %USEC_PER_MSEC are
+ * rounded down to 0, since sk_reset_timer() here uses millisecond granularity.
+ * Hence we can use a constant t_delta = %USEC_PER_MSEC when HZ >= 500. A coarse
+ * resolution of HZ < 500 means that the error is below one timer tick (t_gran)
+ * when using the constant t_delta  =  t_gran / 2  =  %USEC_PER_SEC / (2 * HZ).
+ */
+#if (HZ >= 500)
+# define TFRC_T_DELTA		   USEC_PER_MSEC
+#else
+# define TFRC_T_DELTA		   (USEC_PER_SEC / (2 * HZ))
+#warning Coarse CONFIG_HZ resolution -- higher value recommended for TFRC.
+#endif
+
 enum ccid3_options {
 	TFRC_OPT_LOSS_EVENT_RATE = 192,
 	TFRC_OPT_LOSS_INTERVALS	 = 193,
@@ -92,7 +103,6 @@ enum ccid3_hc_tx_states {
  * @no_feedback_timer - Handle to no feedback timer
  * @t_ld - Time last doubled during slow start
  * @t_nom - Nominal send time of next packet
- * @delta - Send timer delta (RFC 3448, 4.6) in usecs
  * @hist - Packet history
  * @options_received - Parsed set of retrieved options
  */
@@ -111,7 +121,6 @@ struct ccid3_hc_tx_sock {
 	struct timer_list		no_feedback_timer;
 	ktime_t				t_ld;
 	ktime_t				t_nom;
-	u32				delta;
 	struct tfrc_tx_hist_entry	*hist;
 	struct ccid3_options_received	options_received;
 };