[Xen-devel] [PATCH 0/2 V3] xen-netback: switch to NAPI + kthread 1:1 model

[Wei Liu <wei.liu2@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This series implements NAPI + kthread 1:1 model for Xen netback.

This model
 - provides better scheduling fairness among vifs
 - is prerequisite for implementing multiqueue for Xen network driver

The first two patches are ground work for the third patch. First one
simplifies code in netback, second one can reduce memory footprint if we
switch to 1:1 model.

The third patch has the real meat:
 - make use of NAPI to mitigate interrupt 
 - kthreads are not bound to CPUs any more, so that we can take
   advantage of backend scheduler and trust it to do the right thing

Benchmark done on a Dell T3400 workstation with 4 cores, running 4
DomUs. Netserver running in Dom0. DomUs do netperf to Dom0 with
following command: /root/netperf -H Dom0 -fm -l120

IRQs are distributed to 4 cores by hand in the new model, while in the
old model vifs are automatically distributed to 4 kthreads.

* New model
%Cpu0  :  0.5 us, 20.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 28.9 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi, 24.4 si, 25.9 st
%Cpu1  :  0.5 us, 17.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 28.8 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi, 27.7 si, 25.1 st
%Cpu2  :  0.5 us, 18.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 30.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi, 22.9 si, 27.1 st
%Cpu3  :  0.0 us, 20.1 sy,  0.0 ni, 30.4 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi, 22.7 si, 26.8 st
Throughputs: 2027.89 2025.95 2018.57 2016.23 aggregated: 8088.64

* Old model
%Cpu0  :  0.5 us, 68.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 16.1 id,  0.5 wa,  0.0 hi,  2.8 si, 11.5 st
%Cpu1  :  0.4 us, 45.1 sy,  0.0 ni, 31.1 id,  0.4 wa,  0.0 hi,  2.1 si, 20.9 st
%Cpu2  :  0.9 us, 44.8 sy,  0.0 ni, 30.9 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  1.3 si, 22.2 st
%Cpu3  :  0.8 us, 46.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 28.3 id,  1.3 wa,  0.0 hi,  2.1 si, 21.1 st
Throughputs: 1899.14 2280.43 1963.33 1893.47 aggregated: 8036.37

We can see that the impact is mainly on CPU usage. The new model moves
processing from kthread to NAPI (software interrupt).

Comments?

----------------------------------------------------
Change since V2:
 - Remove per-cpu scratch space.

Change since V1:
 - No page pool in this version. Instead page tracking facility is
   removed.

Wei Liu (2):
  xen-netback: remove page tracking facility
  xen-netback: switch to NAPI + kthread 1:1 model

 drivers/net/xen-netback/common.h    |  105 +++--
 drivers/net/xen-netback/interface.c |  122 ++++--
 drivers/net/xen-netback/netback.c   |  817 +++++++++++------------------------
 3 files changed, 390 insertions(+), 654 deletions(-)

-- 
1.7.10.4


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