On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Felix Fietkau <nbd@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 2016-02-08 11:26, Emmanuel Grumbach wrote: >> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 11:54 AM, Krishna Chaitanya >> <chaitanya.mgit@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Emmanuel Grumbach <egrumbach@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>>> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 10:38 AM, Felix Fietkau <nbd@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>>>> Requires software tx queueing support. frag_list support (for zero-copy) >>>>> is optional. >>>>> >>>>> Signed-off-by: Felix Fietkau <nbd@xxxxxxxxxxx> >>>>> --- >>>> >>>> >>>> Ok - looks fine, but... and here comes the hard stuff. >>>> The frame size in the PLCP is limited in a way that you can't - from a >>>> spec POV - enable A-MSDU for low rates. Of course, you don't want to >>>> do that for low rates at all regardless of the spec. >>>> Since you build the A-MSDU in the mac80211 Tx queue which is not aware >>>> of the link quality, how do we prevent A-MSDU if the rate is low / >>>> dropping. >>>> I'd even argue that when the rates get lower, you'll have more >>>> packets piling up in the software queue and ... even more chance to >>>> get A-MSDU in the exact case where you really want to avoid it? >>> >>> Similar to triggering AMPDU setup, we should put this control >>> in RC (minstrel) to start/stop AMSDU based on link quality/if the rates >>> drop below a pre-defined MCS (or) only for best-throughput rates. >> >> Ok - but the size of A-MPDU is determined in the firmware / hardware >> typically (at least for Intel devices and I have to admit my ignorance >> about other designs...). So that if you get bad link conditions, the >> firmware can play for that size. A-MSDU built in the host is a >> different story. I remember that athXk devices attach the rate on the >> Tx packet itself so that the rate control is serialized with the data >> path. >> iwlwifi works differently: we have a map of rates in the firmware. >> This map is maintained in the driver updated based on the feedback we >> get from the device. When an update is needed, iwlwifi sends a command >> to the firmware and that command bypasses all the Tx packets currently >> queue so that a packet that is already waiting in the queue will be >> sent with the updated map. This allows iwlwifi to react downgrade >> faster when needed. > Even ath9k has been converted to use a per-sta rate table with optional > per-packet rate overrides for probing. > >> So - for athXk (and maybe the MediaTek devices Felix is working on), >> this may not be a big problem: you'd need to add another input to the >> A-MSDU building code coming from the rate control. >> FWIW: in iwlwifi I simply decided to be on the safe side and allowed >> the driver to build A-MSDUs only if the rate is fairly high and we are >> not downgrading. But you saw (and commented on) that patch already I >> think :) > I think it would be a good idea for iwlwifi to start using the rate > control API properly. Not only would that simplify integration with the > A-MSDU code, it would also make it possible to compare minstrel_ht with > the iwlwifi rate control code. > The iwlwifi rate control code is doing some crazy things, and I'd be > really interested in seeing how it compares to the more simple and > structured approach taken in minstrel_ht. Yeah ok. So I agree that iwlwifi uses the rate control API in a crazy way, the change is planned (well.. I've said that long ago already...). The plan is to move to internal API only (not go through the rate control API) though... I guess we have enough material for a beer in Seville I think :) > > - Felix -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
