tcp: fix xmit timer to only be reset if data ACKed/SACKed

Fix a TCP loss recovery performance bug raised recently on the netdev
list, in two threads:

(i)  July 26, 2017: netdev thread "TCP fast retransmit issues"
(ii) July 26, 2017: netdev thread:
     "[PATCH V2 net-next] TLP: Don't reschedule PTO when there's one
     outstanding TLP retransmission"

The basic problem is that incoming TCP packets that did not indicate
forward progress could cause the xmit timer (TLP or RTO) to be rearmed
and pushed back in time. In certain corner cases this could result in
the following problems noted in these threads:

 - Repeated ACKs coming in with bogus SACKs corrupted by middleboxes
   could cause TCP to repeatedly schedule TLPs forever. We kept
   sending TLPs after every ~200ms, which elicited bogus SACKs, which
   caused more TLPs, ad infinitum; we never fired an RTO to fill in
   the holes.

 - Incoming data segments could, in some cases, cause us to reschedule
   our RTO or TLP timer further out in time, for no good reason. This
   could cause repeated inbound data to result in stalls in outbound
   data, in the presence of packet loss.

This commit fixes these bugs by changing the TLP and RTO ACK
processing to:

 (a) Only reschedule the xmit timer once per ACK.

 (b) Only reschedule the xmit timer if tcp_clean_rtx_queue() deems the
     ACK indicates sufficient forward progress (a packet was
     cumulatively ACKed, or we got a SACK for a packet that was sent
     before the most recent retransmit of the write queue head).

This brings us back into closer compliance with the RFCs, since, as
the comment for tcp_rearm_rto() notes, we should only restart the RTO
timer after forward progress on the connection. Previously we were
restarting the xmit timer even in these cases where there was no
forward progress.

As a side benefit, this commit simplifies and speeds up the TCP timer
arming logic. We had been calling inet_csk_reset_xmit_timer() three
times on normal ACKs that cumulatively acknowledged some data:

1) Once near the top of tcp_ack() to switch from TLP timer to RTO:
        if (icsk->icsk_pending == ICSK_TIME_LOSS_PROBE)
               tcp_rearm_rto(sk);

2) Once in tcp_clean_rtx_queue(), to update the RTO:
        if (flag & FLAG_ACKED) {
               tcp_rearm_rto(sk);

3) Once in tcp_ack() after tcp_fastretrans_alert() to switch from RTO
   to TLP:
        if (icsk->icsk_pending == ICSK_TIME_RETRANS)
               tcp_schedule_loss_probe(sk);

This commit, by only rescheduling the xmit timer once per ACK,
simplifies the code and reduces CPU overhead.

This commit was tested in an A/B test with Google web server
traffic. SNMP stats and request latency metrics were within noise
levels, substantiating that for normal web traffic patterns this is a
rare issue. This commit was also tested with packetdrill tests to
verify that it fixes the timer behavior in the corner cases discussed
in the netdev threads mentioned above.

This patch is a bug fix patch intended to be queued for -stable
relases.

Fixes: 6ba8a3b19e76 ("tcp: Tail loss probe (TLP)")
Reported-by: Klavs Klavsen <kl@vsen.dk>
Reported-by: Mao Wenan <maowenan@huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Nandita Dukkipati <nanditad@google.com>
Acked-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
index cd8e257492c4..276406a83a37 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_output.c
@@ -2380,21 +2380,12 @@ bool tcp_schedule_loss_probe(struct sock *sk)
 	u32 rtt = usecs_to_jiffies(tp->srtt_us >> 3);
 	u32 timeout, rto_delta_us;
 
-	/* No consecutive loss probes. */
-	if (WARN_ON(icsk->icsk_pending == ICSK_TIME_LOSS_PROBE)) {
-		tcp_rearm_rto(sk);
-		return false;
-	}
 	/* Don't do any loss probe on a Fast Open connection before 3WHS
 	 * finishes.
 	 */
 	if (tp->fastopen_rsk)
 		return false;
 
-	/* TLP is only scheduled when next timer event is RTO. */
-	if (icsk->icsk_pending != ICSK_TIME_RETRANS)
-		return false;
-
 	/* Schedule a loss probe in 2*RTT for SACK capable connections
 	 * in Open state, that are either limited by cwnd or application.
 	 */