CBQ - Class Based Queueing
tc qdisc ... dev dev
( parent classid
| root) [ handle
major:
] cbq avpkt bytes
bandwidth rate
[ cell bytes
]
[ ewma log
] [ mpu bytes
]
tc class ... dev dev
parent major:[minor]
[ classid
major:minor
] cbq allot bytes
[ bandwidth rate
] [ rate
rate
] prio priority
[ weight weight
] [ minburst packets
] [ maxburst packets
] [ ewma log
] [ cell bytes
]
avpkt bytes
[ mpu bytes
] [ bounded isolated ] [ split
handle
& defmap defmap
] [ estimator interval timeconstant
]
Class Based Queueing is a classful qdisc that implements a rich linksharing
hierarchy of classes. It contains shaping elements as well as prioritizing
capabilities. Shaping is performed using link idle time calculations based on
the timing of dequeue events and underlying link bandwidth.
Shaping is done using link idle time calculations, and actions taken if these
calculations deviate from set limits.
When shaping a 10mbit/s connection to 1mbit/s, the link will be idle 90% of the
time. If it isn't, it needs to be throttled so that it IS idle 90% of the
time.
From the kernel's perspective, this is hard to measure, so CBQ instead derives
the idle time from the number of microseconds (in fact, jiffies) that elapse
between requests from the device driver for more data. Combined with the
knowledge of packet sizes, this is used to approximate how full or empty the
link is.
This is rather circumspect and doesn't always arrive at proper results. For
example, what is the actual link speed of an interface that is not really able
to transmit the full 100mbit/s of data, perhaps because of a badly implemented
driver? A PCMCIA network card will also never achieve 100mbit/s because of the
way the bus is designed - again, how do we calculate the idle time?
The physical link bandwidth may be ill defined in case of not-quite-real network
devices like PPP over Ethernet or PPTP over TCP/IP. The effective bandwidth in
that case is probably determined by the efficiency of pipes to userspace -
which not defined.
During operations, the effective idletime is measured using an exponential
weighted moving average (EWMA), which considers recent packets to be
exponentially more important than past ones. The Unix loadaverage is
calculated in the same way.
The calculated idle time is subtracted from the EWMA measured one, the resulting
number is called 'avgidle'. A perfectly loaded link has an avgidle of zero:
packets arrive exactly at the calculated interval.
An overloaded link has a negative avgidle and if it gets too negative, CBQ
throttles and is then 'overlimit'.
Conversely, an idle link might amass a huge avgidle, which would then allow
infinite bandwidths after a few hours of silence. To prevent this, avgidle is
capped at
maxidle.
If overlimit, in theory, the CBQ could throttle itself for exactly the amount of
time that was calculated to pass between packets, and then pass one packet,
and throttle again. Due to timer resolution constraints, this may not be
feasible, see the
minburst parameter below.
Within the one CBQ instance many classes may exist. Each of these classes
contains another qdisc, by default
tc-pfifo(8).
When enqueueing a packet, CBQ starts at the root and uses various methods to
determine which class should receive the data. If a verdict is reached, this
process is repeated for the recipient class which might have further means of
classifying traffic to its children, if any.
CBQ has the following methods available to classify a packet to any child
classes.
- (i)
-
skb->priority class encoding. Can be set from
userspace by an application with the SO_PRIORITY setsockopt. The
skb->priority class encoding only applies if the
skb->priority holds a major:minor handle of an existing class within
this qdisc.
- (ii)
- tc filters attached to the class.
- (iii)
- The defmap of a class, as set with the split &
defmap parameters. The defmap may contain instructions for each
possible Linux packet priority.
Each class also has a
level. Leaf nodes, attached to the bottom of the
class hierarchy, have a level of 0.
Classification is a loop, which terminates when a leaf class is found. At any
point the loop may jump to the fallback algorithm.
The loop consists of the following steps:
- (i)
- If the packet is generated locally and has a valid classid
encoded within its skb->priority, choose it and terminate.
- (ii)
- Consult the tc filters, if any, attached to this child. If
these return a class which is not a leaf class, restart loop from the
class returned. If it is a leaf, choose it and terminate.
- (iii)
- If the tc filters did not return a class, but did return a
classid, try to find a class with that id within this qdisc. Check if the
found class is of a lower level than the current class. If so, and
the returned class is not a leaf node, restart the loop at the found
class. If it is a leaf node, terminate. If we found an upward reference to
a higher level, enter the fallback algorithm.
- (iv)
- If the tc filters did not return a class, nor a valid
reference to one, consider the minor number of the reference to be the
priority. Retrieve a class from the defmap of this class for the priority.
If this did not contain a class, consult the defmap of this class for the
BEST_EFFORT class. If this is an upward reference, or no
BEST_EFFORT class was defined, enter the fallback algorithm. If a
valid class was found, and it is not a leaf node, restart the loop at this
class. If it is a leaf, choose it and terminate. If neither the priority
distilled from the classid, nor the BEST_EFFORT priority yielded a
class, enter the fallback algorithm.
The fallback algorithm resides outside of the loop and is as follows.
- (i)
- Consult the defmap of the class at which the jump to
fallback occurred. If the defmap contains a class for the priority
of the class (which is related to the TOS field), choose this class and
terminate.
- (ii)
- Consult the map for a class for the BEST_EFFORT
priority. If found, choose it, and terminate.
- (iii)
- Choose the class at which break out to the fallback
algorithm occurred. Terminate.
The packet is enqueued to the class which was chosen when either algorithm
terminated. It is therefore possible for a packet to be enqueued *not* at a
leaf node, but in the middle of the hierarchy.
When dequeuing for sending to the network device, CBQ decides which of its
classes will be allowed to send. It does so with a Weighted Round Robin
process in which each class with packets gets a chance to send in turn. The
WRR process starts by asking the highest priority classes (lowest numerically
- highest semantically) for packets, and will continue to do so until they
have no more data to offer, in which case the process repeats for lower
priorities.
CERTAINTY ENDS HERE, ANK PLEASE HELP
Each class is not allowed to send at length though - they can only dequeue a
configurable amount of data during each round.
If a class is about to go overlimit, and it is not
bounded it will try to
borrow avgidle from siblings that are not
isolated. This process is
repeated from the bottom upwards. If a class is unable to borrow enough
avgidle to send a packet, it is throttled and not asked for a packet for
enough time for the avgidle to increase above zero.
I REALLY NEED HELP FIGURING THIS OUT. REST OF DOCUMENT IS PRETTY CERTAIN
AGAIN.
The root qdisc of a CBQ class tree has the following parameters:
- parent major:minor | root
- This mandatory parameter determines the place of the CBQ
instance, either at the root of an interface or within an existing
class.
- handle major:
- Like all other qdiscs, the CBQ can be assigned a handle.
Should consist only of a major number, followed by a colon. Optional.
- avpkt bytes
- For calculations, the average packet size must be known. It
is silently capped at a minimum of 2/3 of the interface MTU.
Mandatory.
- bandwidth rate
- To determine the idle time, CBQ must know the bandwidth of
your underlying physical interface, or parent qdisc. This is a vital
parameter, more about it later. Mandatory.
- cell
- The cell size determines he granularity of packet
transmission time calculations. Has a sensible default.
- mpu
- A zero sized packet may still take time to transmit. This
value is the lower cap for packet transmission time calculations - packets
smaller than this value are still deemed to have this size. Defaults to
zero.
- ewma log
- When CBQ needs to measure the average idle time, it does so
using an Exponentially Weighted Moving Average which smooths out
measurements into a moving average. The EWMA LOG determines how much
smoothing occurs. Defaults to 5. Lower values imply greater sensitivity.
Must be between 0 and 31.
A CBQ qdisc does not shape out of its own accord. It only needs to know certain
parameters about the underlying link. Actual shaping is done in classes.
Classes have a host of parameters to configure their operation.
- parent major:minor
- Place of this class within the hierarchy. If attached
directly to a qdisc and not to another class, minor can be omitted.
Mandatory.
- classid major:minor
- Like qdiscs, classes can be named. The major number must be
equal to the major number of the qdisc to which it belongs. Optional, but
needed if this class is going to have children.
- weight weight
- When dequeuing to the interface, classes are tried for
traffic in a round-robin fashion. Classes with a higher configured qdisc
will generally have more traffic to offer during each round, so it makes
sense to allow it to dequeue more traffic. All weights under a class are
normalized, so only the ratios matter. Defaults to the configured rate,
unless the priority of this class is maximal, in which case it is set to
1.
- allot bytes
- Allot specifies how many bytes a qdisc can dequeue during
each round of the process. This parameter is weighted using the
renormalized class weight described above.
- priority priority
- In the round-robin process, classes with the lowest
priority field are tried for packets first. Mandatory.
- rate rate
- Maximum rate this class and all its children combined can
send at. Mandatory.
- bandwidth rate
- This is different from the bandwidth specified when
creating a CBQ disc. Only used to determine maxidle and offtime, which are
only calculated when specifying maxburst or minburst. Mandatory if
specifying maxburst or minburst.
- maxburst
- This number of packets is used to calculate maxidle so that
when avgidle is at maxidle, this number of average packets can be burst
before avgidle drops to 0. Set it higher to be more tolerant of bursts.
You can't set maxidle directly, only via this parameter.
- minburst
- As mentioned before, CBQ needs to throttle in case of
overlimit. The ideal solution is to do so for exactly the calculated idle
time, and pass 1 packet. However, Unix kernels generally have a hard time
scheduling events shorter than 10ms, so it is better to throttle for a
longer period, and then pass minburst packets in one go, and then sleep
minburst times longer.
The time to wait is called the offtime. Higher values of minburst lead to
more accurate shaping in the long term, but to bigger bursts at
millisecond timescales.
- minidle
- If avgidle is below 0, we are overlimits and need to wait
until avgidle will be big enough to send one packet. To prevent a sudden
burst from shutting down the link for a prolonged period of time, avgidle
is reset to minidle if it gets too low.
Minidle is specified in negative microseconds, so 10 means that avgidle is
capped at -10us.
- bounded
- Signifies that this class will not borrow bandwidth from
its siblings.
- isolated
- Means that this class will not borrow bandwidth to its
siblings
- split major:minor & defmap bitmap[/bitmap]
- If consulting filters attached to a class did not give a
verdict, CBQ can also classify based on the packet's priority. There are
16 priorities available, numbered from 0 to 15.
The defmap specifies which priorities this class wants to receive, specified
as a bitmap. The Least Significant Bit corresponds to priority zero. The
split parameter tells CBQ at which class the decision must be made,
which should be a (grand)parent of the class you are adding.
As an example, 'tc class add ... classid 10:1 cbq .. split 10:0 defmap c0'
configures class 10:0 to send packets with priorities 6 and 7 to 10:1.
The complimentary configuration would then be: 'tc class add ... classid
10:2 cbq ... split 10:0 defmap 3f' Which would send all packets 0, 1, 2,
3, 4 and 5 to 10:1.
- estimator interval timeconstant
- CBQ can measure how much bandwidth each class is using,
which tc filters can use to classify packets with. In order to determine
the bandwidth it uses a very simple estimator that measures once every
interval microseconds how much traffic has passed. This again is a
EWMA, for which the time constant can be specified, also in microseconds.
The time constant corresponds to the sluggishness of the
measurement or, conversely, to the sensitivity of the average to short
bursts. Higher values mean less sensitivity.
- o
- Sally Floyd and Van Jacobson, "Link-sharing and
Resource Management Models for Packet Networks", IEEE/ACM
Transactions on Networking, Vol.3, No.4, 1995
- o
- Sally Floyd, "Notes on CBQ and Guarantee
Service", 1995
- o
- Sally Floyd, "Notes on Class-Based Queueing: Setting
Parameters", 1996
- o
- Sally Floyd and Michael Speer, "Experimental Results
for Class-Based Queueing", 1998, not published.
tc(8)
Alexey N. Kuznetsov, <
[email protected]>. This manpage maintained by
bert hubert <
[email protected]>