[PATCH net-next v10 13/14] net: add devmem TCP documentation

Mina Almasry
2024-05-30T20:16:43Z

Add documentation outlining the usage and details of devmem TCP.

Signed-off-by: Mina Almasry <almasrymina@google.com>

---

v9: https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20240403002053.2376017-14-almasrymina@google.com/
- Bagas doc suggestions.

v8:
- Applied docs suggestions (Randy). Thanks!

v7:
- Applied docs suggestions (Jakub).

v2:

- Missing spdx (simon)
- add to index.rst (simon)

---
Documentation/networking/devmem.rst | 258 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Documentation/networking/index.rst | 1 +
2 files changed, 259 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/networking/devmem.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/devmem.rst b/Documentation/networking/devmem.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f32acfd62075d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/networking/devmem.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,258 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=================
+Device Memory TCP
+=================
+
+
+Intro
+=====
+
+Device memory TCP (devmem TCP) enables receiving data directly into device
+memory (dmabuf). The feature is currently implemented for TCP sockets.
+
+
+Opportunity
+-----------
+
+A large number of data transfers have device memory as the source and/or
+destination. Accelerators drastically increased the prevalence of such
+transfers. Some examples include:
+
+- Distributed training, where ML accelerators, such as GPUs on different hosts,
+ exchange data.
+
+- Distributed raw block storage applications transfer large amounts of data with
+ remote SSDs. Much of this data does not require host processing.
+
+Typically the Device-to-Device data transfers in the network are implemented as
+the following low-level operations: Device-to-Host copy, Host-to-Host network
+transfer, and Host-to-Device copy.
+
+The flow involving host copies is suboptimal, especially for bulk data transfers,
+and can put significant strains on system resources such as host memory
+bandwidth and PCIe bandwidth.
+
+Devmem TCP optimizes this use case by implementing socket APIs that enable
+the user to receive incoming network packets directly into device memory.
+
+Packet payloads go directly from the NIC to device memory.
+
+Packet headers go to host memory and are processed by the TCP/IP stack
+normally. The NIC must support header split to achieve this.
+
+Advantages:
+
+- Alleviate host memory bandwidth pressure, compared to existing
+ network-transfer + device-copy semantics.
+
+- Alleviate PCIe bandwidth pressure, by limiting data transfer to the lowest
+ level of the PCIe tree, compared to the traditional path which sends data
+ through the root complex.
+
+
+More Info
+---------
+
+ slides, video
+ https://netdevconf.org/0x17/sessions/talk/device-memory-tcp.html
+
+ patchset
+ [RFC PATCH v6 00/12] Device Memory TCP
+ https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20240305020153.2787423-1-almasrymina@google.com/
+
+
+Interface
+=========
+
+Example
+-------
+
+tools/testing/selftests/net/ncdevmem.c:do_server shows an example of setting up
+the RX path of this API.
+
+NIC Setup
+---------
+
+Header split, flow steering, & RSS are required features for devmem TCP.
+
+Header split is used to split incoming packets into a header buffer in host
+memory, and a payload buffer in device memory.
+
+Flow steering & RSS are used to ensure that only flows targeting devmem land on
+an RX queue bound to devmem.
+
+Enable header split & flow steering::
+
+ # enable header split
+ ethtool -G eth1 tcp-data-split on
+
+
+ # enable flow steering
+ ethtool -K eth1 ntuple on
+
+Configure RSS to steer all traffic away from the target RX queue (queue 15 in
+this example)::
+
+ ethtool --set-rxfh-indir eth1 equal 15
+
+
+The user must bind a dmabuf to any number of RX queues on a given NIC using
+the netlink API::
+
+ /* Bind dmabuf to NIC RX queue 15 */
+ struct netdev_queue *queues;
+ queues = malloc(sizeof(*queues) * 1);
+
+ queues[0]._present.type = 1;
+ queues[0]._present.idx = 1;
+ queues[0].type = NETDEV_RX_QUEUE_TYPE_RX;
+ queues[0].idx = 15;
+
+ *ys = ynl_sock_create(&ynl_netdev_family, &yerr);
+
+ req = netdev_bind_rx_req_alloc();
+ netdev_bind_rx_req_set_ifindex(req, 1 /* ifindex */);
+ netdev_bind_rx_req_set_dmabuf_fd(req, dmabuf_fd);
+ __netdev_bind_rx_req_set_queues(req, queues, n_queue_index);
+
+ rsp = netdev_bind_rx(*ys, req);
+
+ dmabuf_id = rsp->dmabuf_id;
+
+
+The netlink API returns a dmabuf_id: a unique ID that refers to this dmabuf
+that has been bound.
+
+Socket Setup
+------------
+
+The socket must be flow steered to the dmabuf bound RX queue::
+
+ ethtool -N eth1 flow-type tcp4 ... queue 15,
+
+
+Receiving data
+--------------
+
+The user application must signal to the kernel that it is capable of receiving
+devmem data by passing the MSG_SOCK_DEVMEM flag to recvmsg::
+
+ ret = recvmsg(fd, &msg, MSG_SOCK_DEVMEM);
+
+Applications that do not specify the MSG_SOCK_DEVMEM flag will receive an EFAULT
+on devmem data.
+
+Devmem data is received directly into the dmabuf bound to the NIC in 'NIC
+Setup', and the kernel signals such to the user via the SCM_DEVMEM_* cmsgs::
+
+ for (cm = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg); cm; cm = CMSG_NXTHDR(&msg, cm)) {
+ if (cm->cmsg_level != SOL_SOCKET ||
+ (cm->cmsg_type != SCM_DEVMEM_DMABUF &&
+ cm->cmsg_type != SCM_DEVMEM_LINEAR))
+ continue;
+
+ dmabuf_cmsg = (struct dmabuf_cmsg *)CMSG_DATA(cm);
+
+ if (cm->cmsg_type == SCM_DEVMEM_DMABUF) {
+ /* Frag landed in dmabuf.
+ *
+ * dmabuf_cmsg->dmabuf_id is the dmabuf the
+ * frag landed on.
+ *
+ * dmabuf_cmsg->frag_offset is the offset into
+ * the dmabuf where the frag starts.
+ *
+ * dmabuf_cmsg->frag_size is the size of the
+ * frag.
+ *
+ * dmabuf_cmsg->frag_token is a token used to
+ * refer to this frag for later freeing.
+ */
+
+ struct dmabuf_token token;
+ token.token_start = dmabuf_cmsg->frag_token;
+ token.token_count = 1;
+ continue;
+ }
+
+ if (cm->cmsg_type == SCM_DEVMEM_LINEAR)
+ /* Frag landed in linear buffer.
+ *
+ * dmabuf_cmsg->frag_size is the size of the
+ * frag.
+ */
+ continue;
+
+ }
+
+Applications may receive 2 cmsgs:
+
+- SCM_DEVMEM_DMABUF: this indicates the fragment landed in the dmabuf indicated
+ by dmabuf_id.
+
+- SCM_DEVMEM_LINEAR: this indicates the fragment landed in the linear buffer.
+ This typically happens when the NIC is unable to split the packet at the
+ header boundary, such that part (or all) of the payload landed in host
+ memory.
+
+Applications may receive no SO_DEVMEM_* cmsgs. That indicates non-devmem,
+regular TCP data that landed on an RX queue not bound to a dmabuf.
+
+
+Freeing frags
+-------------
+
+Frags received via SCM_DEVMEM_DMABUF are pinned by the kernel while the user
+processes the frag. The user must return the frag to the kernel via
+SO_DEVMEM_DONTNEED::
+
+ ret = setsockopt(client_fd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_DEVMEM_DONTNEED, &token,
+ sizeof(token));
+
+The user must ensure the tokens are returned to the kernel in a timely manner.
+Failure to do so will exhaust the limited dmabuf that is bound to the RX queue
+and will lead to packet drops.
+
+
+Implementation & Caveats
+========================
+
+Unreadable skbs
+---------------
+
+Devmem payloads are inaccessible to the kernel processing the packets. This
+results in a few quirks for payloads of devmem skbs:
+
+- Loopback is not functional. Loopback relies on copying the payload, which is
+ not possible with devmem skbs.
+
+- Software checksum calculation fails.
+
+- TCP Dump and bpf can't access devmem packet payloads.
+
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+More realistic example code can be found in the kernel source under
+tools/testing/selftests/net/ncdevmem.c
+
+ncdevmem is a devmem TCP netcat. It works very similarly to netcat, but
+receives data directly into a udmabuf.
+
+To run ncdevmem, you need to run it on a server on the machine under test, and
+you need to run netcat on a peer to provide the TX data.
+
+ncdevmem has a validation mode as well that expects a repeating pattern of
+incoming data and validates it as such. For example, you can launch
+ncdevmem on the server by::
+
+ ncdevmem -s <server IP> -c <client IP> -f eth1 -d 3 -n 0000:06:00.0 -l \
+ -p 5201 -v 7
+
+On client side, use regular netcat to send TX data to ncdevmem process
+on the server::
+
+ yes $(echo -e \\x01\\x02\\x03\\x04\\x05\\x06) | \
+ tr \\n \\0 | head -c 5G | nc <server IP> 5201 -p 5201
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/index.rst b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
index 7664c0bfe461c..64e8ae22520ad 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/index.rst
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ Contents:
cdc_mbim
dccp
dctcp
+ devmem
dns_resolver
driver
eql
--
2.45.1.288.g0e0cd299f1-goog