Difference between revisions of "GSOC2019TCPTestingAndAlignment"

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(Week 2)
(Weekly Progress)
Line 107: Line 107:
 
     - pipe > ssthresh
 
     - pipe > ssthresh
 
* Tested default initial congestion window of 10 segments with existing test cases and 2 tests failed and 1 test crashed.
 
* Tested default initial congestion window of 10 segments with existing test cases and 2 tests failed and 1 test crashed.
 +
 +
=== Week 3 ===
 +
* Did unit testing of the alignment of TcpLinuxPrrRecovery class with Linux implementation of PRR. [https://gitlab.com/apoorvabhargava/ns-3-dev/commit/1f9910a6d55e5ad68653ed98551c226d9553e357]
 +
* Added two test cases pipe > ssthresh and pipe < ssthresh for testing and also documented about these test cases. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XYcvw4F9ttdrmEdK6UxuSp3qD86YCIC6xrxBr1DgQpg/edit?usp=sharing]
 +
* Looked into the implementation of div_u64 () method of Linux and observed that it is an architecture base division operation. If the system supports 64bit architecture then normal division operation is performed otherwise if the system supports 32bit architecture then an optimized 64bit division is performed. And it was decided that implementation of this method in ns-3 is not required.
 +
* Fixed a few issues in the merge request that was submitted earlier. [https://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev/merge_requests/69/commits]
 +
 +
=== Week 4 ===
 +
* Completed the alignment of TcpLinuxPrrRecovery class with Linux.
 +
* Tested the alignment in the scenario where 20 packets are sent from sender to the receiver and 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th packet are dropped.
 +
* Discussed with mentors the limitation in ns-3 to support the Linux variant.
 +
* Observed and fixed the following issue in the implementation of PRR: <br />In the scenario mentioned in point 2, it was observed that on receiving a partial ACK for 5th packet, 2 packets were getting ACKed (3rd and 4th packet) out of which one was already SACKed (4th packet). So in this case, the calculation of prr_delivered (total bytes delivered during recovery) should consider only 3rd packet and not the 4th packet as it was already counted in prr_delivered (on receiving dupack for the 3rd packet with SACK block for 4th packet). Due to this reason, I changed the data type of lastSackedBytes to int so that it can store a negative value and subtract the bytes which were already SACKed in the prr_delivered calculation.

Revision as of 10:47, 27 June 2019

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Project Overview

  • Project Name: TCP Testing and Alignment
  • Student: Apoorva Bhargava
  • Mentors: Tom Henderson, Vivek Jain
  • Abstract: This project aims at aligning the ns-3 TCP with Linux kernel to have a more realistic implementation of TCP in ns-3 with proper documentation of the differences. The features of TCP which will be aligned are ECN, RACK, SACK, DSACK, and Paced Chirping. To achieve this, ns-3 DCE (Direct Code Execution) will be used. DCE (Direct Code Execution) is a framework that allows the users to run kernel space protocol inside the ns-3 without changing the source code.
  • Code: to be added
  • About Me: I am a 2nd-year postgraduate student at National Institute of Technology, Karnataka India. I have worked on Implementation of TCP Jersey in ns-3 and Implementation Cautious Adaptive RED in ns-3 during my first year of postgraduation. Currently, I am working on Alignment and Validation of ns-3 TCP with Linux TCP using ns-3 Direct Code Execution (DCE) framework.

Technical Approach

Many features of ns-3 TCP are aligned with RFCs but not with TCP implementation in Linux. The main goal of this project is to have a Linux like TCP implementation in ns-3 and cover main components of TCP Prague i.e ECN, DCTCP, RACK and Paced Chirping. I have already done the alignment of Slow Start and Congestion Avoidance phase of ns-3 New Reno with Linux TCP Reno and validated it in simple dumbbell topology with one sender and one receiver using ns-3 DCE. Results can be found here. Currently, I am working on alignment of PRR recovery algorithm of ns-3 with Linux using ns-3 DCE as it is default recovery algorithm in Linux kernel. Further, I will work on the alignment of ECN followed by DCTCP, as DCTCP uses ECN feature of TCP in its algorithm. Next, I will cover the alignment of RACK which will also cover the alignment of SACK and DSACK as these two are the pre-requisites. Lastly, the alignment of Paced Chirping will be done. Validation of all the aligned features of ns-3 TCP will be done using ns-3 DCE and proper documentation of all the differences will be provided. Also, if time permits I will try to align the ns-3 implementation of TCP Cubic and TCP BBR with Linux kernel.

Milestones and Deliverables

The entire GSoC period is be divided into 2 phases and the deliverables at the end of each phase will be as follows:

Phase 1:

  • Align Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) implementation of ns-3 with Linux
  • Align Data Center TCP (DCTCP) implementation of ns-3 with Linux
  • Validate the alignment of ECN in dumbbell topology using ns-3 DCE
  • Validate the alignment of DCTCP in data center topology using ns3-DCE

Phase 2:

  • Align ns-3 implementation of Selective Acknowledgement (SACK) and Duplicate Selective Acknowledgement with Linux
  • Align ns-3 implementation of Recent Acknowledgement (RACK) with Linux
  • Validate the alignment of SACK, DSACK, and RACK using ns-3 DCE
  • Align ns-3 implementation of Paced Chirping with Linux
  • Validate the alignment of Paced Chirping using ns-3 DCE

Weekly Plan

Community Bonding Period (6 May - 26 May 2019)

  • Contact the mentors and update weekly plan according to their suggestions
  • Setting up a git repository for the project
  • Get suggestions on the testing scenarios which will be used for the validation
  • Work on the alignment of PRR as it the default recovery algorithm in Linux

Week 1 (27 May - 2 June 2019)

  • Start understanding the codebase of ECN in ns-3 as well as in Linux
  • Document the differences observed in ECN code of ns-3 and Linux

Week 2 (3 June - 9 June 2019 )

  • Align the differences found in ECN and validate the implementation in dumbbell topology using DCE

Week 3 (10 June - 16 June 2019)

  • Validate Data Center TCP in data center topology using DCE

Week 4 (17 June - 23 June 2019)

  • Start understanding the codebase of SACK in ns-3 as well as Linux
  • Document the differences observed

Week 5 (24 June - 30 June 2019)

  • Align the differences found in SACK and validate the implementation using DCE

Week 6 (1 July - 7 July 2019)

  • Study the codebase of DSACK in ns-3 and Linux
  • Document the differences observed

Week 7 (8 July - 14 July 2019)

  • Align the differences found in DSACK and validate the implementation using DCE

Week 8 (15 July - 21 July 2019)

  • Study the codebase of RACK in ns-3 as well as in Linux
  • Document the differences.

Week 9 (22 July - 28 July 2019)

  • Align the differences found in RACK and validate the implementation using DCE

Week 10 (29 July - 4 August 2019)

  • Study the codebase of Paced Chirping in ns-3 as well as Linux
  • Document the differences

Week 11 (5 August - 11 August 2019)

  • Align the differences found in Paced Chirping and validate the implementation using DCE

Week 12 (13 August - 19 August 2019)

  • Submit all the required patches

Weekly Progress

Community Bonding Period

  • Communicate with the mentors through call
  • Set up my git repository
  • Reported a bug by creating a merge request and it got merged into mainline of ns-3.[1]
  • Added the code for new TCP variant called TcpLinuxReno which contains the Linux like implementation of TCP New Reno. This work was done before the GSoC was started.[2]
  • Next feature which I took for the alignment is Proportional Rate Reduction (PRR) for TCP. While checking the alignment of PRR in ns-3 with Linux, I observed an issue related to the handling of SACK blocks in PRR algorithm. I have reported this issue.[3]

Week 1

  • Submitted merge request for the issue of handling SACK blocks with PRR algorithm.[4].
  • Tested PRR in a single packet loss scenario using ns-3 DCE and aligned the observed differences. The difference was there because ns-3 handles everything in terms of bytes whereas Linux in terms of packets. According to RFC 6937, PRR calculates a variable called "sndcnt", which indicates exactly how many bytes should be sent in response to each ACK. The following equation is used to calculate the sndcnt in ns-3:

    sendCount = std::ceil (m_prrDelivered * tcb->m_ssThresh * 1.0 / m_recoveryFlightSize) - m_prrOut;

    Since ns-3 handles it in terms of bytes, the above equation was not giving the value of senCount in multiple of segment size which was not the case with Linux as it calculated the value of sndcnt in terms of packets.
  • Also, Documented the results.[5] Another difference was observed that on exiting the recovery phase ns-3 and Linux handles the updation of cwnd differently.
  • Had a discussion with mentors on how to handle differences between Linux and pure RFC standards. And it was discussed that ns-3 should have both the implementations but the default should be set as Linux as this will give more realistic results to the users.
  • It was finalized with mentors to have a Linux like PRR implementation in ns-3 as a separate class.

Week 2

  • Implemented a new class for Linux like PRR implementation. [6]
  • Validated the implementation in a scenario of bulk traffic and updated the result in google doc. Following is the overlapping graph obtained for cwnd obtained in bulk traffic scenario:
    CwndA.png
  • Created a new repo which contains examples, patches and scripts. [7]
  • Decided with mentors the following test scenarios for PRR:
    - pipe < ssthresh
    - pipe > ssthresh
  • Tested default initial congestion window of 10 segments with existing test cases and 2 tests failed and 1 test crashed.

Week 3

  • Did unit testing of the alignment of TcpLinuxPrrRecovery class with Linux implementation of PRR. [8]
  • Added two test cases pipe > ssthresh and pipe < ssthresh for testing and also documented about these test cases. [9]
  • Looked into the implementation of div_u64 () method of Linux and observed that it is an architecture base division operation. If the system supports 64bit architecture then normal division operation is performed otherwise if the system supports 32bit architecture then an optimized 64bit division is performed. And it was decided that implementation of this method in ns-3 is not required.
  • Fixed a few issues in the merge request that was submitted earlier. [10]

Week 4

  • Completed the alignment of TcpLinuxPrrRecovery class with Linux.
  • Tested the alignment in the scenario where 20 packets are sent from sender to the receiver and 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th packet are dropped.
  • Discussed with mentors the limitation in ns-3 to support the Linux variant.
  • Observed and fixed the following issue in the implementation of PRR:
    In the scenario mentioned in point 2, it was observed that on receiving a partial ACK for 5th packet, 2 packets were getting ACKed (3rd and 4th packet) out of which one was already SACKed (4th packet). So in this case, the calculation of prr_delivered (total bytes delivered during recovery) should consider only 3rd packet and not the 4th packet as it was already counted in prr_delivered (on receiving dupack for the 3rd packet with SACK block for 4th packet). Due to this reason, I changed the data type of lastSackedBytes to int so that it can store a negative value and subtract the bytes which were already SACKed in the prr_delivered calculation.