From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from smtp.nokia.com ([192.100.122.230]:36786 "EHLO mgw-mx03.nokia.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753409Ab0DVJcN (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Apr 2010 05:32:13 -0400 Subject: Re: [RFC PATCHv3 1/2] mac80211: Determine dynamic PS timeout based on ps-qos network latency From: Juuso Oikarinen To: ext Johannes Berg Cc: "linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org" In-Reply-To: <1271927257.3605.18.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> References: <1271409274-17162-1-git-send-email-juuso.oikarinen@nokia.com> <1271409274-17162-2-git-send-email-juuso.oikarinen@nokia.com> <1271688177.23671.1.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> <1271740120.6205.5733.camel@wimaxnb.nmp.nokia.com> <1271925939.3605.7.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> <1271926547.6205.8870.camel@wimaxnb.nmp.nokia.com> <1271927257.3605.18.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:29:36 +0300 Message-ID: <1271928576.6205.8919.camel@wimaxnb.nmp.nokia.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, 2010-04-22 at 11:07 +0200, ext Johannes Berg wrote: > On Thu, 2010-04-22 at 11:55 +0300, Juuso Oikarinen wrote: > > > > > Well you have to see where I'm coming from - I must come up with a way > > > > to tune the dynamic ps timeout value from user-space in a way that is > > > > agreeable with others, and that is somewhat future-proof. > > > > > > Well I personally think that's your first mistake ;) > > > > > > Why does userspace care about the dynamic PS timeout value to start > > > with? All it should care about is the latency with which it can react to > > > network packets, no? > > > > > > > That said, obviously the network latency should be tuned as, well, the > > > > expected network latency. In this phase though, there are no other > > > > parameters affected by the network latency, so the result is quite > > > > obvious - your fear will realise itself ;) > > > > > > But there are, like the max sleep period in # of beacons. > > > > Yeah, okay there is. You probably noticed I posted a version of the > > patches with "saner" latency-values for this reason. > > Still I think you should say why you need to actually tune the PS > timeout value directly? I can't see how your high-level design says "set > dynamic PS timeout to 100ms" rather than "make sure that while the user > is operating the device, there's no delay of more than 50ms" or > something like that? You're partly right asking this. The high-level design obviously does not know about dynamic PS timeouts. It seems you're mainly looking at this from the angle of the network latency itself - i.e. network performance. My primary angle currently is power consumption. IMHO both angles are correct. The if the user sets a tight network-latency requirement, the value can be used to tune things so that the requirement can be met. If they set a loose requirement, it can be used as a signal to do more aggressive power saving, which often means reduced latency. While the mechanism I'm proposing here is rather crude, it does save power when the user-space loosens their latency requirement. The values chosen for the dynamic ps-timeout bear no direct relation to user space requirements. They are simply values that we have found to give decent results in typical AP configurations. The ps_timeout could be calculated based on the latency too, I guess. I'm just not aware of any simple formula to do this. -Juuso > johannes >