[PATCH net-next] tcp: force a PSH flag on TSO packets

[Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>]

When tcp sends a TSO packet, adding a PSH flag on it
reduces the sojourn time of GRO packet in GRO receivers.

This is particularly the case under pressure, since RX queues
receive packets for many concurrent flows.

A sender can give a hint to GRO engines when it is
appropriate to flush a super-packet, especially when pacing
is in the picture, since next packet is probably delayed by
one ms.

Having less packets in GRO engine reduces chance
of LRU eviction or inflated RTT, and reduces GRO cost.

We found recently that we must not set the PSH flag on
individual full-size MSS segments [1] :

 Under pressure (CWR state), we better let the packet sit
 for a small delay (depending on NAPI logic) so that the
 ACK packet is delayed, and thus next packet we send is
 also delayed a bit. Eventually the bottleneck queue can
 be drained. DCTCP flows with CWND=1 have demonstrated
 the issue.

This patch allows to slowdown the aggregate traffic without
involving high resolution timers on senders and/or
receivers.

It has been used at Google for about four years,
and has been discussed at various networking conferences.

[1] segments smaller than MSS already have PSH flag set
    by tcp_sendmsg() / tcp_mark_push(), unless MSG_MORE
    has been requested by the user.

Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Cc: Soheil Hassas Yeganeh <soheil@google.com>
Cc: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Cc: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Cc: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Cc: Tariq Toukan <tariqt@mellanox.com>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_output.c | 15 +++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
index 42abc9bd687a5fea627cbc7cfa750d022f393d84..fec6d67bfd146dc78f0f25173fd71b8b8cc752fe 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
@@ -1050,11 +1050,22 @@ static int __tcp_transmit_skb(struct sock *sk, struct sk_buff *skb,
 	tcb = TCP_SKB_CB(skb);
 	memset(&opts, 0, sizeof(opts));
 
-	if (unlikely(tcb->tcp_flags & TCPHDR_SYN))
+	if (unlikely(tcb->tcp_flags & TCPHDR_SYN)) {
 		tcp_options_size = tcp_syn_options(sk, skb, &opts, &md5);
-	else
+	} else {
 		tcp_options_size = tcp_established_options(sk, skb, &opts,
 							   &md5);
+		/* Force a PSH flag on all (GSO) packets to expedite GRO flush
+		 * at receiver : This slightly improve GRO performance.
+		 * Note that we do not force the PSH flag for non GSO packets,
+		 * because they might be sent under high congestion events,
+		 * and in this case it is better to delay the delivery of 1-MSS
+		 * packets and thus the corresponding ACK packet that would
+		 * release the following packet.
+		 */
+		if (tcp_skb_pcount(skb) > 1)
+			tcb->tcp_flags |= TCPHDR_PSH;
+	}
 	tcp_header_size = tcp_options_size + sizeof(struct tcphdr);
 
 	/* if no packet is in qdisc/device queue, then allow XPS to select
-- 
2.23.0.162.g0b9fbb3734-goog