[PATCH net-next 0/5] fix stretch ACK bugs in TCP CUBIC and Reno

[PATCH net-next 0/5] fix stretch ACK bugs in TCP CUBIC and Reno

[Neal Cardwell]

This patch series fixes the TCP CUBIC and Reno congestion control
modules to properly handle stretch ACKs in their respective additive
increase modes, and in the transitions from slow start to additive
increase.

This finishes the project started by commit 9f9843a751d0a2057 ("tcp:
properly handle stretch acks in slow start"), which fixed behavior for
TCP congestion control when handling stretch ACKs in slow start mode.

Motivation: In the Jan 2015 netdev thread 'BW regression after "tcp:
refine TSO autosizing"', Eyal Perry documented a regression that Eric
Dumazet determined was caused by improper handling of TCP stretch
ACKs.

Background: LRO, GRO, delayed ACKs, and middleboxes can cause "stretch
ACKs" that cover more than the RFC-specified maximum of 2
packets. These stretch ACKs can cause serious performance shortfalls
in common congestion control algorithms, like Reno and CUBIC, which
were designed and tuned years ago with receiver hosts that were not
using LRO or GRO, and were instead ACKing every other packet.

Testing: at Google we have been using this approach for handling
stretch ACKs for CUBIC datacenter and Internet traffic for several
years, with good results.

Neal Cardwell (5):
  tcp: stretch ACK fixes prep
  tcp: fix the timid additive increase on stretch ACKs
  tcp: fix stretch ACK bugs in Reno
  tcp: fix stretch ACK bugs in CUBIC
  tcp: fix timing issue in CUBIC slope calculation

 include/net/tcp.h       |  4 ++--
 net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c      |  2 +-
 net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c     | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++------------
 net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c    | 38 +++++++++++++++++---------------------
 net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c |  3 ++-
 net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c     |  2 +-
 net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c     |  2 +-
 7 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)

-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

[PATCH net-next 1/5] tcp: stretch ACK fixes prep

[Neal Cardwell]

LRO, GRO, delayed ACKs, and middleboxes can cause "stretch ACKs" that
cover more than the RFC-specified maximum of 2 packets. These stretch
ACKs can cause serious performance shortfalls in common congestion
control algorithms that were designed and tuned years ago with
receiver hosts that were not using LRO or GRO, and were instead
politely ACKing every other packet.

This patch series fixes Reno and CUBIC to handle stretch ACKs.

This patch prepares for the upcoming stretch ACK bug fix patches. It
adds an "acked" parameter to tcp_cong_avoid_ai() to allow for future
fixes to tcp_cong_avoid_ai() to correctly handle stretch ACKs, and
changes all congestion control algorithms to pass in 1 for the ACKed
count. It also changes tcp_slow_start() to return the number of packet
ACK "credits" that were not processed in slow start mode, and can be
processed by the congestion control module in additive increase mode.

In future patches we will fix tcp_cong_avoid_ai() to handle stretch
ACKs, and fix Reno and CUBIC handling of stretch ACKs in slow start
and additive increase mode.

Reported-by: Eyal Perry <eyalpe@mellanox.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
 include/net/tcp.h       |  4 ++--
 net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c      |  2 +-
 net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c     | 11 +++++++----
 net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c    |  2 +-
 net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c |  3 ++-
 net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c     |  2 +-
 net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c     |  2 +-
 7 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/net/tcp.h b/include/net/tcp.h
index b8fdc6b..9021f7b 100644
--- a/include/net/tcp.h
+++ b/include/net/tcp.h
@@ -843,8 +843,8 @@ void tcp_get_available_congestion_control(char *buf, size_t len);
 void tcp_get_allowed_congestion_control(char *buf, size_t len);
 int tcp_set_allowed_congestion_control(char *allowed);
 int tcp_set_congestion_control(struct sock *sk, const char *name);
-void tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked);
-void tcp_cong_avoid_ai(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 w);
+int tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked);
+void tcp_cong_avoid_ai(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 w, u32 acked);
 
 u32 tcp_reno_ssthresh(struct sock *sk);
 void tcp_reno_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked);
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c
index bb395d4..c037644 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_bic.c
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ static void bictcp_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
 	else {
 		bictcp_update(ca, tp->snd_cwnd);
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt);
+		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt, 1);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
index 63c29db..75d0141 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
@@ -360,25 +360,28 @@ int tcp_set_congestion_control(struct sock *sk, const char *name)
  * ABC caps N to 2. Slow start exits when cwnd grows over ssthresh and
  * returns the leftover acks to adjust cwnd in congestion avoidance mode.
  */
-void tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked)
+int tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked)
 {
 	u32 cwnd = tp->snd_cwnd + acked;
 
 	if (cwnd > tp->snd_ssthresh)
 		cwnd = tp->snd_ssthresh + 1;
+	acked -= cwnd - tp->snd_cwnd;
 	tp->snd_cwnd = min(cwnd, tp->snd_cwnd_clamp);
+
+	return acked;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_slow_start);
 
 /* In theory this is tp->snd_cwnd += 1 / tp->snd_cwnd (or alternative w) */
-void tcp_cong_avoid_ai(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 w)
+void tcp_cong_avoid_ai(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 w, u32 acked)
 {
 	if (tp->snd_cwnd_cnt >= w) {
 		if (tp->snd_cwnd < tp->snd_cwnd_clamp)
 			tp->snd_cwnd++;
 		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt = 0;
 	} else {
-		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt++;
+		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt += acked;
 	}
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_cong_avoid_ai);
@@ -402,7 +405,7 @@ void tcp_reno_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
 	/* In dangerous area, increase slowly. */
 	else
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd);
+		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd, 1);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_reno_cong_avoid);
 
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
index 6b60024..df4bc4d 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ static void bictcp_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
 	} else {
 		bictcp_update(ca, tp->snd_cwnd);
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt);
+		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt, 1);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c
index 6824afb..333bcb2 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_scalable.c
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ static void tcp_scalable_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 	if (tp->snd_cwnd <= tp->snd_ssthresh)
 		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
 	else
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, min(tp->snd_cwnd, TCP_SCALABLE_AI_CNT));
+		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, min(tp->snd_cwnd, TCP_SCALABLE_AI_CNT),
+				  1);
 }
 
 static u32 tcp_scalable_ssthresh(struct sock *sk)
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c
index a4d2d2d..112151e 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_veno.c
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ static void tcp_veno_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 				/* In the "non-congestive state", increase cwnd
 				 *  every rtt.
 				 */
-				tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd);
+				tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd, 1);
 			} else {
 				/* In the "congestive state", increase cwnd
 				 * every other rtt.
diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c
index cd72732..17d3566 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_yeah.c
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ static void tcp_yeah_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 
 	} else {
 		/* Reno */
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd);
+		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd, 1);
 	}
 
 	/* The key players are v_vegas.beg_snd_una and v_beg_snd_nxt.
-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

[PATCH net-next 2/5] tcp: fix the timid additive increase on stretch ACKs

[Neal Cardwell]

tcp_cong_avoid_ai() was too timid (snd_cwnd increased too slowly) on
"stretch ACKs" -- cases where the receiver ACKed more than 1 packet in
a single ACK. For example, suppose w is 10 and we get a stretch ACK
for 20 packets, so acked is 20. We ought to increase snd_cwnd by 2
(since acked/w = 20/10 = 2), but instead we were only increasing cwnd
by 1. This patch fixes that behavior.

Reported-by: Eyal Perry <eyalpe@mellanox.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c | 15 +++++++++------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
index 75d0141..ec78f56 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
@@ -373,16 +373,19 @@ int tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_slow_start);
 
-/* In theory this is tp->snd_cwnd += 1 / tp->snd_cwnd (or alternative w) */
+/* In theory this is tp->snd_cwnd += 1 / tp->snd_cwnd (or alternative w),
+ * for every packet that was ACKed.
+ */
 void tcp_cong_avoid_ai(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 w, u32 acked)
 {
+	tp->snd_cwnd_cnt += acked;
 	if (tp->snd_cwnd_cnt >= w) {
-		if (tp->snd_cwnd < tp->snd_cwnd_clamp)
-			tp->snd_cwnd++;
-		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt = 0;
-	} else {
-		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt += acked;
+		u32 delta = tp->snd_cwnd_cnt / w;
+
+		tp->snd_cwnd_cnt -= delta * w;
+		tp->snd_cwnd += delta;
 	}
+	tp->snd_cwnd = min(tp->snd_cwnd, tp->snd_cwnd_clamp);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_cong_avoid_ai);
 
-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

[PATCH net-next 3/5] tcp: fix stretch ACK bugs in Reno

[Neal Cardwell]

Change Reno to properly handle stretch ACKs in additive increase mode
by passing in the count of ACKed packets to tcp_cong_avoid_ai().

In addition, if snd_cwnd crosses snd_ssthresh during slow start
processing, and we then exit slow start mode, we need to carry over
any remaining "credit" for packets ACKed and apply that to additive
increase by passing this remaining "acked" count to
tcp_cong_avoid_ai().

Reported-by: Eyal Perry <eyalpe@mellanox.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c | 10 ++++++----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
index ec78f56..319718d 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cong.c
@@ -404,11 +404,13 @@ void tcp_reno_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 		return;
 
 	/* In "safe" area, increase. */
-	if (tp->snd_cwnd <= tp->snd_ssthresh)
-		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
+	if (tp->snd_cwnd <= tp->snd_ssthresh) {
+		acked = tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
+		if (!acked)
+			return;
+	}
 	/* In dangerous area, increase slowly. */
-	else
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd, 1);
+	tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, tp->snd_cwnd, acked);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(tcp_reno_cong_avoid);
 
-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

[PATCH net-next 4/5] tcp: fix stretch ACK bugs in CUBIC

[Neal Cardwell]

Change CUBIC to properly handle stretch ACKs in additive increase mode
by passing in the count of ACKed packets to tcp_cong_avoid_ai().

In addition, because we are now precisely accounting for stretch ACKs,
including delayed ACKs, we can now remove the delayed ACK tracking and
estimation code that tracked recent delayed ACK behavior in
ca->delayed_ack.

Reported-by: Eyal Perry <eyalpe@mellanox.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c | 30 +++++++++---------------------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
index df4bc4d..e036958 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
@@ -93,9 +93,7 @@ struct bictcp {
 	u32	epoch_start;	/* beginning of an epoch */
 	u32	ack_cnt;	/* number of acks */
 	u32	tcp_cwnd;	/* estimated tcp cwnd */
-#define ACK_RATIO_SHIFT	4
-#define ACK_RATIO_LIMIT (32u << ACK_RATIO_SHIFT)
-	u16	delayed_ack;	/* estimate the ratio of Packets/ACKs << 4 */
+	u16	unused;
 	u8	sample_cnt;	/* number of samples to decide curr_rtt */
 	u8	found;		/* the exit point is found? */
 	u32	round_start;	/* beginning of each round */
@@ -114,7 +112,6 @@ static inline void bictcp_reset(struct bictcp *ca)
 	ca->bic_K = 0;
 	ca->delay_min = 0;
 	ca->epoch_start = 0;
-	ca->delayed_ack = 2 << ACK_RATIO_SHIFT;
 	ca->ack_cnt = 0;
 	ca->tcp_cwnd = 0;
 	ca->found = 0;
@@ -205,12 +202,12 @@ static u32 cubic_root(u64 a)
 /*
  * Compute congestion window to use.
  */
-static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd)
+static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd, u32 acked)
 {
 	u32 delta, bic_target, max_cnt;
 	u64 offs, t;
 
-	ca->ack_cnt++;	/* count the number of ACKs */
+	ca->ack_cnt += acked;	/* count the number of ACKed packets */
 
 	if (ca->last_cwnd == cwnd &&
 	    (s32)(tcp_time_stamp - ca->last_time) <= HZ / 32)
@@ -221,7 +218,7 @@ static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd)
 
 	if (ca->epoch_start == 0) {
 		ca->epoch_start = tcp_time_stamp;	/* record beginning */
-		ca->ack_cnt = 1;			/* start counting */
+		ca->ack_cnt = acked;			/* start counting */
 		ca->tcp_cwnd = cwnd;			/* syn with cubic */
 
 		if (ca->last_max_cwnd <= cwnd) {
@@ -301,7 +298,6 @@ static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd)
 		}
 	}
 
-	ca->cnt = (ca->cnt << ACK_RATIO_SHIFT) / ca->delayed_ack;
 	if (ca->cnt == 0)			/* cannot be zero */
 		ca->cnt = 1;
 }
@@ -317,11 +313,12 @@ static void bictcp_cong_avoid(struct sock *sk, u32 ack, u32 acked)
 	if (tp->snd_cwnd <= tp->snd_ssthresh) {
 		if (hystart && after(ack, ca->end_seq))
 			bictcp_hystart_reset(sk);
-		tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
-	} else {
-		bictcp_update(ca, tp->snd_cwnd);
-		tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt, 1);
+		acked = tcp_slow_start(tp, acked);
+		if (!acked)
+			return;
 	}
+	bictcp_update(ca, tp->snd_cwnd, acked);
+	tcp_cong_avoid_ai(tp, ca->cnt, acked);
 }
 
 static u32 bictcp_recalc_ssthresh(struct sock *sk)
@@ -416,15 +413,6 @@ static void bictcp_acked(struct sock *sk, u32 cnt, s32 rtt_us)
 	struct bictcp *ca = inet_csk_ca(sk);
 	u32 delay;
 
-	if (icsk->icsk_ca_state == TCP_CA_Open) {
-		u32 ratio = ca->delayed_ack;
-
-		ratio -= ca->delayed_ack >> ACK_RATIO_SHIFT;
-		ratio += cnt;
-
-		ca->delayed_ack = clamp(ratio, 1U, ACK_RATIO_LIMIT);
-	}
-
 	/* Some calls are for duplicates without timetamps */
 	if (rtt_us < 0)
 		return;
-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

[PATCH net-next 5/5] tcp: fix timing issue in CUBIC slope calculation

[Neal Cardwell]

This patch fixes a bug in CUBIC that causes cwnd to increase slightly
too slowly when multiple ACKs arrive in the same jiffy.

If cwnd is supposed to increase at a rate of more than once per jiffy,
then CUBIC was sometimes too slow. Because the bic_target is
calculated for a future point in time, calculated with time in
jiffies, the cwnd can increase over the course of the jiffy while the
bic_target calculated as the proper CUBIC cwnd at time
t=tcp_time_stamp+rtt does not increase, because tcp_time_stamp only
increases on jiffy tick boundaries.

So since the cnt is set to:
	ca->cnt = cwnd / (bic_target - cwnd);
as cwnd increases but bic_target does not increase due to jiffy
granularity, the cnt becomes too large, causing cwnd to increase
too slowly.

For example:
- suppose at the beginning of a jiffy, cwnd=40, bic_target=44
- so CUBIC sets:
   ca->cnt =  cwnd / (bic_target - cwnd) = 40 / (44 - 40) = 40/4 = 10
- suppose we get 10 acks, each for 1 segment, so tcp_cong_avoid_ai()
   increases cwnd to 41
- so CUBIC sets:
   ca->cnt =  cwnd / (bic_target - cwnd) = 41 / (44 - 41) = 41 / 3 = 13

So now CUBIC will wait for 13 packets to be ACKed before increasing
cwnd to 42, insted of 10 as it should.

The fix is to avoid adjusting the slope (determined by ca->cnt)
multiple times within a jiffy, and instead skip to compute the Reno
cwnd, the "TCP friendliness" code path.

Reported-by: Eyal Perry <eyalpe@mellanox.com>
Signed-off-by: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuchung Cheng <ycheng@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
---
 net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
index e036958..4f91141 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_cubic.c
@@ -213,6 +213,13 @@ static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd, u32 acked)
 	    (s32)(tcp_time_stamp - ca->last_time) <= HZ / 32)
 		return;
 
+	/* The CUBIC function can update ca->cnt at most once per jiffy.
+	 * On all cwnd reduction events, ca->epoch_start is set to 0,
+	 * which will force a recalculation of ca->cnt.
+	 */
+	if (ca->epoch_start && tcp_time_stamp == ca->last_time)
+		goto tcp_friendliness;
+
 	ca->last_cwnd = cwnd;
 	ca->last_time = tcp_time_stamp;
 
@@ -280,6 +287,7 @@ static inline void bictcp_update(struct bictcp *ca, u32 cwnd, u32 acked)
 	if (ca->last_max_cwnd == 0 && ca->cnt > 20)
 		ca->cnt = 20;	/* increase cwnd 5% per RTT */
 
+tcp_friendliness:
 	/* TCP Friendly */
 	if (tcp_friendliness) {
 		u32 scale = beta_scale;
-- 
2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c

Re: [PATCH net-next 1/5] tcp: stretch ACK fixes prep

[David Miller]

From: Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:34:39 -0500

> -void tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked);
 ...
> +int tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked);
 ...
 ...
> @@ -360,25 +360,28 @@ int tcp_set_congestion_control(struct sock *sk, const char *name)
>   * ABC caps N to 2. Slow start exits when cwnd grows over ssthresh and
>   * returns the leftover acks to adjust cwnd in congestion avoidance mode.
>   */
> -void tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked)
> +int tcp_slow_start(struct tcp_sock *tp, u32 acked)
>  {
>  	u32 cwnd = tp->snd_cwnd + acked;
>  
>  	if (cwnd > tp->snd_ssthresh)
>  		cwnd = tp->snd_ssthresh + 1;
> +	acked -= cwnd - tp->snd_cwnd;
>  	tp->snd_cwnd = min(cwnd, tp->snd_cwnd_clamp);
> +
> +	return acked;
>  }

'acked' is a u32, please have this function return a u32 as well.

In fact in all the call sites the return value gets assigned into a
local u32 variable as well, so I have no idea why you're using 'int'
here.

Thanks.