Hi,
Motivation: we noticed alloc_skb()/kfree() used lots of clock ticks when
handling heavy network traffic. As Linux kernel always need to call
kmalloc()/kfree() to allocate and deallocate a skb DATA buffer(not sk_buff)
for each incoming/outgoing packet, we try to reduce the frequence of calling
these memory functions.
I wangt to set up a ring buffer in Linux kernel(skbuff.c) and recycle those
skb data buffers. The basic idea is as follows:
1. Create a ring buffer. This ring buffer has a head pointer which points to
the virtual address of the data buffer to be reused; It also has a tail
pointer, which can be used to store the virutal address of skb data buffer
for those transmitted packets.
2. If the ring buffer is full, just use normal kmalloc()/kfree() operation
to manager those skb data buffers instead of recycling them.
3. if any DATA buffer is available, Instead of calling kmalloc(), assign a
skb data buffer directly from ring buffer to the incoming packets.
4. If ring buffer still has space, Instead of calling kfree(), store the skb
data buffer into the ring buffer.
5. if the head and tail pointer overlap and head pointer is not empty, just
stop accpeting more DATA buffer until some DATA buffer is used for the
incoming packets.
I tested my method on the latest Linux kernel 2.6.13.3, it works with the
normal traffic; However, the Linux kernel crashed under the heavy network
traffic.
Any idea to make this ring bufer work under the heavy network traffic?
Thanks a lot,
Leo Y