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diff --git a/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.txt b/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..de2a327766a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/checksum-offloads.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +Checksum Offloads in the Linux Networking Stack + + +Introduction +============ + +This document describes a set of techniques in the Linux networking stack + to take advantage of checksum offload capabilities of various NICs. + +The following technologies are described: + * TX Checksum Offload + * LCO: Local Checksum Offload + * RCO: Remote Checksum Offload + +Things that should be documented here but aren't yet: + * RX Checksum Offload + * CHECKSUM_UNNECESSARY conversion + + +TX Checksum Offload +=================== + +The interface for offloading a transmit checksum to a device is explained + in detail in comments near the top of include/linux/skbuff.h. +In brief, it allows to request the device fill in a single ones-complement + checksum defined by the sk_buff fields skb->csum_start and + skb->csum_offset. The device should compute the 16-bit ones-complement + checksum (i.e. the 'IP-style' checksum) from csum_start to the end of the + packet, and fill in the result at (csum_start + csum_offset). +Because csum_offset cannot be negative, this ensures that the previous + value of the checksum field is included in the checksum computation, thus + it can be used to supply any needed corrections to the checksum (such as + the sum of the pseudo-header for UDP or TCP). +This interface only allows a single checksum to be offloaded. Where + encapsulation is used, the packet may have multiple checksum fields in + different header layers, and the rest will have to be handled by another + mechanism such as LCO or RCO. +No offloading of the IP header checksum is performed; it is always done in + software. This is OK because when we build the IP header, we obviously + have it in cache, so summing it isn't expensive. It's also rather short. +The requirements for GSO are more complicated, because when segmenting an + encapsulated packet both the inner and outer checksums may need to be + edited or recomputed for each resulting segment. See the skbuff.h comment + (section 'E') for more details. + +A driver declares its offload capabilities in netdev->hw_features; see + Documentation/networking/netdev-features for more. Note that a device + which only advertises NETIF_F_IP[V6]_CSUM must still obey the csum_start + and csum_offset given in the SKB; if it tries to deduce these itself in + hardware (as some NICs do) the driver should check that the values in the + SKB match those which the hardware will deduce, and if not, fall back to + checksumming in software instead (with skb_checksum_help or one of the + skb_csum_off_chk* functions as mentioned in include/linux/skbuff.h). This + is a pain, but that's what you get when hardware tries to be clever. + +The stack should, for the most part, assume that checksum offload is + supported by the underlying device. The only place that should check is + validate_xmit_skb(), and the functions it calls directly or indirectly. + That function compares the offload features requested by the SKB (which + may include other offloads besides TX Checksum Offload) and, if they are + not supported or enabled on the device (determined by netdev->features), + performs the corresponding offload in software. In the case of TX + Checksum Offload, that means calling skb_checksum_help(skb). + + +LCO: Local Checksum Offload +=========================== + +LCO is a technique for efficiently computing the outer checksum of an + encapsulated datagram when the inner checksum is due to be offloaded. +The ones-complement sum of a correctly checksummed TCP or UDP packet is + equal to the sum of the pseudo header, because everything else gets + 'cancelled out' by the checksum field. This is because the sum was + complemented before being written to the checksum field. +More generally, this holds in any case where the 'IP-style' ones complement + checksum is used, and thus any checksum that TX Checksum Offload supports. +That is, if we have set up TX Checksum Offload with a start/offset pair, we + know that _after the device has filled in that checksum_, the ones + complement sum from csum_start to the end of the packet will be equal to + _whatever value we put in the checksum field beforehand_. This allows us + to compute the outer checksum without looking at the payload: we simply + stop summing when we get to csum_start, then add the 16-bit word at + (csum_start + csum_offset). +Then, when the true inner checksum is filled in (either by hardware or by + skb_checksum_help()), the outer checksum will become correct by virtue of + the arithmetic. + +LCO is performed by the stack when constructing an outer UDP header for an + encapsulation such as VXLAN or GENEVE, in udp_set_csum(). Similarly for + the IPv6 equivalents, in udp6_set_csum(). +It is also performed when constructing an IPv4 GRE header, in + net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:build_header(). It is *not* currently performed when + constructing an IPv6 GRE header; the GRE checksum is computed over the + whole packet in net/ipv6/ip6_gre.c:ip6gre_xmit2(), but it should be + possible to use LCO here as IPv6 GRE still uses an IP-style checksum. +All of the LCO implementations use a helper function lco_csum(), in + include/linux/skbuff.h. + +LCO can safely be used for nested encapsulations; in this case, the outer + encapsulation layer will sum over both its own header and the 'middle' + header. This does mean that the 'middle' header will get summed multiple + times, but there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid that without incurring + bigger costs (e.g. in SKB bloat). + + +RCO: Remote Checksum Offload +============================ + +RCO is a technique for eliding the inner checksum of an encapsulated + datagram, allowing the outer checksum to be offloaded. It does, however, + involve a change to the encapsulation protocols, which the receiver must + also support. For this reason, it is disabled by default. +RCO is detailed in the following Internet-Drafts: +https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-herbert-remotecsumoffload-00 +https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-herbert-vxlan-rco-00 +In Linux, RCO is implemented individually in each encapsulation protocol, + and most tunnel types have flags controlling its use. For instance, VXLAN + has the flag VXLAN_F_REMCSUM_TX (per struct vxlan_rdst) to indicate that + RCO should be used when transmitting to a given remote destination. |