[PATCH v13 0/7] add Tx preparation

[Tomasz Kulasek <tomaszx.kulasek@intel.com>]

As discussed in that thread:

http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-September/023603.html

Different NIC models depending on HW offload requested might impose
different requirements on packets to be TX-ed in terms of:

 - Max number of fragments per packet allowed
 - Max number of fragments per TSO segments
 - The way pseudo-header checksum should be pre-calculated
 - L3/L4 header fields filling
 - etc.


MOTIVATION:
-----------

1) Some work cannot (and didn't should) be done in rte_eth_tx_burst.
   However, this work is sometimes required, and now, it's an
   application issue.

2) Different hardware may have different requirements for TX offloads,
   other subset can be supported and so on.

3) Some parameters (e.g. number of segments in ixgbe driver) may hung
   device. These parameters may be vary for different devices.

   For example i40e HW allows 8 fragments per packet, but that is after
   TSO segmentation. While ixgbe has a 38-fragment pre-TSO limit.

4) Fields in packet may require different initialization (like e.g. will
   require pseudo-header checksum precalculation, sometimes in a
   different way depending on packet type, and so on). Now application
   needs to care about it.

5) Using additional API (rte_eth_tx_prepare) before rte_eth_tx_burst let
   to prepare packet burst in acceptable form for specific device.

6) Some additional checks may be done in debug mode keeping tx_burst
   implementation clean.


PROPOSAL:
---------

To help user to deal with all these varieties we propose to:

1) Introduce rte_eth_tx_prepare() function to do necessary preparations
   of packet burst to be safely transmitted on device for desired HW
   offloads (set/reset checksum field according to the hardware
   requirements) and check HW constraints (number of segments per
   packet, etc).

   While the limitations and requirements may differ for devices, it
   requires to extend rte_eth_dev structure with new function pointer
   "tx_pkt_prepare" which can be implemented in the driver to prepare
   and verify packets, in devices specific way, before burst, what
   should to prevent application to send malformed packets.

2) Also new fields will be introduced in rte_eth_desc_lim: 
   nb_seg_max and nb_mtu_seg_max, providing an information about max
   segments in TSO and non-TSO packets acceptable by device.

   This information is useful for application to not create/limit
   malicious packet.


APPLICATION (CASE OF USE):
--------------------------

1) Application should to initialize burst of packets to send, set
   required tx offload flags and required fields, like l2_len, l3_len,
   l4_len, and tso_segsz

2) Application passes burst to the rte_eth_tx_prep to check conditions
   required to send packets through the NIC.

3) The result of rte_eth_tx_prep can be used to send valid packets
   and/or restore invalid if function fails.

e.g.

	for (i = 0; i < nb_pkts; i++) {

		/* initialize or process packet */

		bufs[i]->tso_segsz = 800;
		bufs[i]->ol_flags = PKT_TX_TCP_SEG | PKT_TX_IPV4
				| PKT_TX_IP_CKSUM;
		bufs[i]->l2_len = sizeof(struct ether_hdr);
		bufs[i]->l3_len = sizeof(struct ipv4_hdr);
		bufs[i]->l4_len = sizeof(struct tcp_hdr);
	}

	/* Prepare burst of TX packets */
	nb_prep = rte_eth_tx_prepare(port, 0, bufs, nb_pkts);

	if (nb_prep < nb_pkts) {
		printf("Tx prepare failed\n");

		/* nb_prep indicates here first invalid packet. rte_eth_tx_prep
		 * can be used on remaining packets to find another ones.
		 */

	}

	/* Send burst of TX packets */
	nb_tx = rte_eth_tx_burst(port, 0, bufs, nb_prep);

	/* Free any unsent packets. */

v13 changes:
 - added support for vmxnet3
 - reworded help information for "csum txprep" command
 - renamed RTE_ETHDEV_TX_PREPARE to RTE_ETHDEV_TX_PREPARE_NOOP to
   better suit its purpose.

v12 changes:
 - renamed API function from "rte_eth_tx_prep" to "rte_eth_tx_prepare"
   (to be not confused with "prepend")
 - changed "rte_phdr_cksum_fix" to "rte_net_intel_cksum_prepare"
 - added "csum txprep (on|off)" command to the csum engine allowing to
   select txprep path for packet processing

v11 changed:
 - updated comments
 - added information to the API description about packet data
   requirements/limitations.

v10 changes:
 - moved drivers tx calback check in rte_eth_tx_prep after queue_id check

v9 changes:
 - fixed headers structure fragmentation check
 - moved fragmentation check into rte_validate_tx_offload()

v8 changes:
 - mbuf argument in rte_validate_tx_offload declared as const

v7 changes:
 - comments reworded/added
 - changed errno values returned from Tx prep API
 - added check in rte_phdr_cksum_fix if headers are in the first
   data segment and can be safetly modified
 - moved rte_validate_tx_offload to rte_mbuf
 - moved rte_phdr_cksum_fix to rte_net.h
 - removed rte_pkt.h new file as useless

v6 changes:
 - added performance impact test results to the patch description

v5 changes:
 - rebased csum engine modification
 - added information to the csum engine about performance tests
 - some performance improvements

v4 changes:
 - tx_prep is now set to default behavior (NULL) for simple/vector path
   in fm10k, i40e and ixgbe drivers to increase performance, when
   Tx offloads are not intentionally available

v3 changes:
 - reworked csum testpmd engine instead adding new one,
 - fixed checksum initialization procedure to include also outer
   checksum offloads,
 - some minor formattings and optimalizations

v2 changes:
 - rte_eth_tx_prep() returns number of packets when device doesn't
   support tx_prep functionality,
 - introduced CONFIG_RTE_ETHDEV_TX_PREP allowing to turn off tx_prep


Ananyev, Konstantin (1):
  vmxnet3: add Tx preparation

Tomasz Kulasek (6):
  ethdev: add Tx preparation
  e1000: add Tx preparation
  fm10k: add Tx preparation
  i40e: add Tx preparation
  ixgbe: add Tx preparation
  testpmd: use Tx preparation in csum engine

 app/test-pmd/cmdline.c                      |   49 ++++++++++++
 app/test-pmd/csumonly.c                     |   33 ++++++--
 app/test-pmd/testpmd.c                      |    5 ++
 app/test-pmd/testpmd.h                      |    2 +
 config/common_base                          |    9 +++
 doc/guides/testpmd_app_ug/testpmd_funcs.rst |   13 +++
 drivers/net/e1000/e1000_ethdev.h            |   11 +++
 drivers/net/e1000/em_ethdev.c               |    5 +-
 drivers/net/e1000/em_rxtx.c                 |   48 ++++++++++-
 drivers/net/e1000/igb_ethdev.c              |    4 +
 drivers/net/e1000/igb_rxtx.c                |   52 +++++++++++-
 drivers/net/fm10k/fm10k.h                   |    6 ++
 drivers/net/fm10k/fm10k_ethdev.c            |    5 ++
 drivers/net/fm10k/fm10k_rxtx.c              |   50 +++++++++++-
 drivers/net/i40e/i40e_ethdev.c              |    3 +
 drivers/net/i40e/i40e_rxtx.c                |   74 ++++++++++++++++-
 drivers/net/i40e/i40e_rxtx.h                |    8 ++
 drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethdev.c            |    3 +
 drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe_ethdev.h            |    5 +-
 drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe_rxtx.c              |   56 +++++++++++++
 drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe_rxtx.h              |    2 +
 drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_ethdev.c        |    4 +
 drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_ethdev.h        |    2 +
 drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_rxtx.c          |   57 +++++++++++++
 lib/librte_ether/rte_ethdev.h               |  115 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/librte_mbuf/rte_mbuf.h                  |   64 +++++++++++++++
 lib/librte_net/rte_net.h                    |   85 ++++++++++++++++++++
 27 files changed, 757 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

-- 
1.7.9.5