Re: Too aggressive TCP ACKs

From: Cui, Cheng <Cheng.Cui_at_netapp.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:02:59 UTC
You can also think about MacOS’s delayed ACK setup in default is conservative.

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/716394


--
Cheng Cui

From: owner-freebsd-net@freebsd.org <owner-freebsd-net@freebsd.org> on behalf of Zhenlei Huang <zlei.huang@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, October 21, 2022 at 11:01 AM
To: Michael Tuexen <michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de>
Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: Too aggressive TCP ACKs
NetApp Security WARNING: This is an external email. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.



On Oct 21, 2022, at 10:34 PM, Michael Tuexen <michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de<mailto:michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de>> wrote:

On 21. Oct 2022, at 16:19, Zhenlei Huang <zlei.huang@gmail.com<mailto:zlei.huang@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi,

While I was repeating https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=258755, I observed a
strange behavior. The TCP ACKs from FreeBSD host are too aggressive.

My setup is simple:
        A                                 B
  [ MacOS ]  <====> [ FreeBSD VM ]
192.168.120.1            192.168.12.134 (disable tso and lro)
While A <--- B, i.e. A as server and B as client, the packets rate looks good.

One session on B:

root@:~ # iperf3 -c 192.168.120.1 -b 10m
Connecting to host 192.168.120.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.120.134 port 54459 connected to 192.168.120.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec    0    257 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  12.0 MBytes  10.1 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  12.0 MBytes  10.1 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Another session on B:

root@:~ # netstat -w 1 -I vmx0
           input           vmx0           output
  packets  errs idrops      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
      342     0     0      22600        526     0     775724     0
      150     0     0       9900        851     0    1281454     0
      109     0     0       7194        901     0    1357850     0
      126     0     0       8316        828     0    1246632     0
      122     0     0       8052        910     0    1370780     0
      109     0     0       7194        819     0    1233702     0
      120     0     0       7920        910     0    1370780     0
      110     0     0       7260        819     0    1233702     0
      123     0     0       8118        910     0    1370780     0
      109     0     0       7194        819     0    1233702     0
       73     0     0       5088        465     0     686342     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0



================================================================


While A ---> B, i.e. A as client and B as server, the ACKs sent from B looks strange.

Session on A:

% iperf3 -c 192.168.120.134 -b 10m
Connecting to host 192.168.120.134, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.120.1 port 52370 connected to 192.168.120.134 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  12.0 MBytes  10.1 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  12.0 MBytes  10.1 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Session on B:

root@:~ # netstat -w 1 -I vmx0
           input           vmx0           output
  packets  errs idrops      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
      649     0     0     960562        330     0      21800     0
      819     0     0    1233702        415     0      27390     0
      910     0     0    1370780        459     0      30294     0
      819     0     0    1233702        415     0      27390     0
      910     0     0    1370780        459     0      30294     0
      910     0     0    1370780        460     0      30360     0
      819     0     0    1233702        414     0      27324     0
      910     0     0    1370780        460     0      30360     0
      819     0     0    1233702        414     0      27324     0
      910     0     0    1370780        460     0      30360     0
      285     0     0     412287        147     0       9981     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0
        0     0     0          0          0     0          0     0


The ACK packets replied from B (the FreeBSD VM) are too aggressive. They are
about one half of TCP packets received from A.

I've tested with different bitrates, from 10m to 300m, all behave the same.
Tested with baremetal FreeBSD 13.1 Box as B (with intel em driver), the
bitrates is 1g, also  behaves the same.

Also tried different FreeBSD versions, 11.4, 12.3, stable/13 and current/14 all
behave the same.


My question is, is that the expected behavior of current default TCP stack?
That is what I would expect. TCP (on FreeBSD) is acking every other packet. This
is also what is specified. MacOS, at least newer versions, send less ACKs.
Thanks for fast response!

My have old memories about SACK which helps TCP performance. This behavior
seems odd from my mind. But those memories date back to 2008, that is 14 years ago.

The current implementation of TCP stack in FreeBSD head is too complexed for me.
Can you please point me the RFCs specifying this? So I can start over with a quick glue.

Thanks!


Best regards
Michael




Best regards,
Zhenlei