[PATCH v3 1/1] netdev: add netdev_queue_set_dql_min_limit()

[Vincent Mailhol <mailhol.vincent@wanadoo.fr>]

Add a function to set the dynamic queue limit minimum value.

Some specific drivers might have legitimate reasons to configure
dql.min_limit to a given value. Typically, this is the case when the
PDU of the protocol is smaller than the packet size to used to
carry those frames to the device.

Concrete example: a CAN (Control Area Network) device with an USB 2.0
interface.  The PDU of classical CAN protocol are roughly 16 bytes but
the USB packet size (which is used to carry the CAN frames to the
device) might be up to 512 bytes.  Wen small traffic burst occurs, BQL
algorithm is not able to immediately adjust and this would result in
having to send many small USB packets (i.e packet of 16 bytes for each
CAN frame). Filling up the USB packet with CAN frames is relatively
fast (small latency issue) but the gain of not having to send several
small USB packets is huge (big throughput increase). In this case,
forcing dql.min_limit to a given value that would allow to stuff the
USB packet is always a win.

This function is to be used by network drivers which are able to prove
through a rationale and through empirical tests on several environment
(with other applications, heavy context switching, virtualization...),
that they constantly reach better performances with a specific
predefined dql.min_limit value with no noticeable latency impact.

Signed-off-by: Vincent Mailhol <mailhol.vincent@wanadoo.fr>
---
 include/linux/netdevice.h | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/netdevice.h b/include/linux/netdevice.h
index ddf4cfc12615..c3511263b15a 100644
--- a/include/linux/netdevice.h
+++ b/include/linux/netdevice.h
@@ -3389,6 +3389,24 @@ netif_xmit_frozen_or_drv_stopped(const struct netdev_queue *dev_queue)
 	return dev_queue->state & QUEUE_STATE_DRV_XOFF_OR_FROZEN;
 }
 
+/**
+ *	netdev_queue_set_dql_min_limit - set dql minimum limit
+ *	@dev_queue: pointer to transmit queue
+ *	@min_limit: dql minimum limit
+ *
+ * Forces xmit_more() to return true until the minimum threshold
+ * defined by @min_limit is reached (or until the tx queue is
+ * empty). Warning: to be use with care, misuse will impact the
+ * latency.
+ */
+static inline void netdev_queue_set_dql_min_limit(struct netdev_queue *dev_queue,
+						  unsigned int min_limit)
+{
+#ifdef CONFIG_BQL
+	dev_queue->dql.min_limit = min_limit;
+#endif
+}
+
 /**
  *	netdev_txq_bql_enqueue_prefetchw - prefetch bql data for write
  *	@dev_queue: pointer to transmit queue
-- 
2.26.2