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add documentation on tcp_notsent_lowat

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Daniel Micay 2021-01-01 09:14:50 -05:00
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@ -196,6 +196,45 @@
bottleneck.</p>
</section>
<section id="quicker-backpressure-propagation">
<h2><a href="#quicker-backpressure-propagation">Quicker backpressure propagation</a></h2>
<p>The Linux kernel can be tuned to more quickly propagate TCP backpressure up to
applications while still maximizing bandwidth usage. This is incredibly useful for
interactive applications aiming to send the freshest possible copy of data and for
protocols like HTTP/2 multiplexing streams/messages with different priorities over
the same TCP connection. This can also substantially reduce memory usage for TCP
by reducing buffer sizes closer to the optimal amount for maximizing bandwidth
use without wasting memory. The downside to quicker backpressure propagation is
increased CPU usage from additional system calls and context switches.</p>
<p>The Linux kernel automatically adjusts the size of the write queue to maximize
bandwidth usage. The write queue is divided into unacknowledged bytes (TCP window
size) and unsent bytes. As acknowledgements of transmitted data are received, it
frees up space for the application to queue more data. The queue of unsent bytes
provides the leeway needed to wake the application and obtain more data. This can
be reduced using <code>net.ipv4.tcp_notsent_lowat</code> to reduce the default and
the <code>TCP_NOTSENT_LOWAT</code> socket option to override it per-socket.</p>
<p>A reasonable choice for internet-based workloads concerned about latency and
particularly prioritization within TCP connections is 128kiB. To configure this,
set the following in <code>/etc/sysctl.d/local.conf</code> or another sysctl
configuration file and load it with <code>sysctl --system</code>:</p>
<pre>net.ipv4.tcp_notsent_lowat = 131072</pre>
<p>Using values as low as 16384 can make sense to further improve latency and
prioritization. However, it's more likely to negatively impact throughput and will
further increase CPU usage. Use at least 128k or the default of not limiting the
automatic unsent buffer size unless you're going to do substantial testing to make
sure there's not a negative impact for the workload.</p>
<p>If you decide to use <code>tcp_notsent_lowat</code>, be aware that newer Linux
kernels (Linux 5.0+ with a further improvement for Linux 5.10+) substantially
reduce system calls / context switches by not triggering the application to
provide more data until over half the unsent byte buffer is empty.</p>
</section>
<section id="future">
<h2><a href="#future">Future</a></h2>