Re: Too aggressive TCP ACKs

From: Michael Tuexen <michael.tuexen_at_lurchi.franken.de>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2022 18:16:21 UTC
> On 21. Oct 2022, at 17:00, Zhenlei Huang <zlei.huang@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Oct 21, 2022, at 10:34 PM, Michael Tuexen <michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 21. Oct 2022, at 16:19, Zhenlei Huang <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.
I don't think anything has changed since then from a specification point of view
> 
> 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.
Send an ACK for every other frame if everything is OK, send it immediately if there are some gaps:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9293#section-3.8.6.3
This applies also to the case where you use SACK.

Best regards
Michael
> 
> Thanks!
>> 
>> Best regards
>> Michael
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> Zhenlei
>