mbox series

[v2,0/2] mac80211: extend current rate control tx status API

Message ID 20220309195759.1494-1-jelonek.jonas@gmail.com
Headers show
Series mac80211: extend current rate control tx status API | expand

Message

Jonas Jelonek March 9, 2022, 7:57 p.m. UTC
This patch series extends the current rate control tx status API.
ieee80211_tx_info has a fixed limit in size (SKB_CB) and its ieee80211_tx_rate
is not suitable to annotate e.g. the mcs rate set from IEEE 802.11ax nor
additional per packet information like tx-power.

The commit 18fb84d986b3 introduced the extended on-stack struct
ieee80211_tx_status, which makes the tx status API more extensible.

With this patch we introduce a new struct ieee80211_rate_status that extends
current rate control tx status API further, in order to achieve:
(1)     receive tx power status feedback for transmit power control per
        packet or packet retry
(2)     dynamic mapping of wifi chip specific multi-rate retry (mrr) chains
        with different lengths
(3)     increase the limit of annotatable rate indices to support
        IEEE802.11ax rate sets and beyond

(1) cannot be achieved with the use of struct ieee80211_tx_info because both
control and status buffer have a fixed SKB_CB size limit. E.g. the current 
control buffer size would only allow tx-power annotations per packet,
not per mrr chain. The status buffer has no free space left. Struct
ieee80211_tx_status is intended to add such extensions.

(2) is motivated by the varying length of mrr chains in common wireless
hardware supported by Linux. E.g. Atheros chipsets support four mrr chain
stages, mediatek chips vary from a single mrr chain stage up to 8 stages, all
with specific restrictions in rate configuration, retry count and tx-power
control ability.
Currently the number of mrr chain stages is fixed to 4 (defined by
IEEE80211_TX_MAX_RATES). Although this value could be increased, a change
would affect all wireless drivers and probably cause additional problems.
Therefore we introduce a dynamic-sized solution that supports different
numbers of mrr chain stages hence a dynamic allocation of chain stages
supported by different wifi chipsets.

(3) The current struct ieee80211_tx_info uses a s8 integer for rate idx,
which would be to less for e.g. IEEE802.11ax rate annotations. To overcome
this limitation, we introduce struct rate_info from cfg80211.h. This struct
is not limited to annotate rates hence addressing rates up to 802.11ax and
also future rate sets are usable.

Our new struct is intended for all information related to RC and TPC that
needs to be passed from driver to mac80211 and its RC/TPC algorithms like
Minstrel_HT. Multiple instances of this struct can be included in struct
ieee80211_tx_status via a pointer and a length variable. Those can be
allocated on-stack. The former reference to a single instance of struct
rate_info is replaced with our new annotation.

Compile-Tested: current wireless-next tree with all flags on
Tested-on: Xiaomi 4A Gigabit (MediaTek MT7603E, MT7612E) with OpenWrt
                Linux 5.10.83

---
v2: Fixed some typos and a missing ! in changes in status.c
---

Jonas Jelonek (2):
  mac80211: extend current rate control tx status API
  mac80211: minstrel_ht: support ieee80211_rate_status

 drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c |  13 ++-
 include/net/mac80211.h                  |  10 +-
 net/mac80211/rc80211_minstrel_ht.c      | 131 ++++++++++++++++++++++--
 net/mac80211/rc80211_minstrel_ht.h      |   2 +-
 net/mac80211/status.c                   |  91 +++++++++-------
 5 files changed, 195 insertions(+), 52 deletions(-)

Comments

Ben Greear March 9, 2022, 8:38 p.m. UTC | #1
On 3/9/22 11:57 AM, Jonas Jelonek wrote:
> This patch adds the new struct ieee80211_rate_status and replaces
> 'struct rate_info *rate' in ieee80211_tx_status with pointer and length
> annotation.
> 
> The struct ieee80211_rate_status allows to:
> (1)	receive tx power status feedback for transmit power control (TPC)
> 	per packet or packet retry
> (2)	dynamic mapping of wifi chip specific multi-rate retry (mrr)
> 	chains with different lengths
> (3)	increase the limit of annotatable rate indices to support
> 	IEEE802.11ac rate sets and beyond
> 
> ieee80211_tx_info, control and status buffer, and ieee80211_tx_rate
> cannot be used to achieve these goals due to fixed size limitations.
> 
> Our new struct contains a struct rate_info to annotate the rate that was
> used, retry count of the rate and tx power. It is intended for all
> information related to RC and TPC that needs to be passed from driver to
> mac80211 and its RC/TPC algorithms like Minstrel_HT. It corresponds to
> one stage in an mrr. Multiple subsequent instances of this struct can be
> included in struct ieee80211_tx_status via a pointer and a length variable.
> Those instances can be allocated on-stack. The former reference to a single
> instance of struct rate_info is replaced with our new annotation.
> 
> Further mandatory changes in status.c and mt76 driver due to the
> removal of 'struct rate_info *rate' are also included.
> status.c already uses the information in ieee80211_tx_status->rate in
> radiotap, this is now changed to use ieee80211_rate_status->rate_idx.
> mt76 driver already uses struct rate_info to pass the tx rate to status
> path. It is now enclosed in an instance of struct ieee80211_rate_status
> with default values for retry_count and tx_power. The latter should be
> adjusted later to pass more accurate values.
> 
> Compile-Tested: current wireless-next tree with all flags on
> Tested-on: Xiaomi 4A Gigabit (MediaTek MT7603E, MT7612E) with OpenWrt
> 		Linux 5.10.83
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jonas Jelonek <jelonek.jonas@gmail.com>
> ---
>   drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c | 13 +++-
>   include/net/mac80211.h                  | 10 ++-
>   net/mac80211/status.c                   | 91 ++++++++++++++-----------
>   3 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
> index 6b8c9dc80542..ed3f3654999f 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
> @@ -62,13 +62,20 @@ mt76_tx_status_unlock(struct mt76_dev *dev, struct sk_buff_head *list)
>   		};
>   		struct mt76_tx_cb *cb = mt76_tx_skb_cb(skb);
>   		struct mt76_wcid *wcid;
> +		struct ieee80211_rate_status rate = {0};
>   
>   		wcid = rcu_dereference(dev->wcid[cb->wcid]);
>   		if (wcid) {
>   			status.sta = wcid_to_sta(wcid);
> -
> -			if (status.sta)
> -				status.rate = &wcid->rate;
> +			if (status.sta) {
> +				rate.rate_idx = wcid->rate;
> +				rate.retry_count = 1;
> +				/* Default 0 for now, can be used by TPC algorithm */
> +				rate.tx_power = 0;
> +
> +				status.rates = &rate;
> +				status.n_rates = 1;
> +			}
>   		}
>   
>   		hw = mt76_tx_status_get_hw(dev, skb);
> diff --git a/include/net/mac80211.h b/include/net/mac80211.h
> index c50221d7e82c..1e98ed04b446 100644
> --- a/include/net/mac80211.h
> +++ b/include/net/mac80211.h
> @@ -1131,6 +1131,12 @@ ieee80211_info_get_tx_time_est(struct ieee80211_tx_info *info)
>   	return info->tx_time_est << 2;
>   }
>   
> +struct ieee80211_rate_status {
> +	struct rate_info rate_idx;
> +	u8 retry_count;
> +	s8 tx_power;
> +};

Please document the units for tx_power.  Many chips can support 1/2 db increments, for instance,
so consider that for units...  A zero txpower is still a valid number, so you probably need
something other than 0 to be the 'default'.  Like -128?

And, does 'retry_count' actually mean 'try_count'?  So a single tx would be retry_count = 1?
Please document that as well.

Thanks,
Ben
Thomas Hühn March 10, 2022, 4:07 p.m. UTC | #2
Hiho

> On 9. Mar 2022, at 21:38, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
> 
> On 3/9/22 11:57 AM, Jonas Jelonek wrote:
>> This patch adds the new struct ieee80211_rate_status and replaces
>> 'struct rate_info *rate' in ieee80211_tx_status with pointer and length
>> annotation.
>> The struct ieee80211_rate_status allows to:
>> (1)	receive tx power status feedback for transmit power control (TPC)
>> 	per packet or packet retry
>> (2)	dynamic mapping of wifi chip specific multi-rate retry (mrr)
>> 	chains with different lengths
>> (3)	increase the limit of annotatable rate indices to support
>> 	IEEE802.11ac rate sets and beyond
>> ieee80211_tx_info, control and status buffer, and ieee80211_tx_rate
>> cannot be used to achieve these goals due to fixed size limitations.
>> Our new struct contains a struct rate_info to annotate the rate that was
>> used, retry count of the rate and tx power. It is intended for all
>> information related to RC and TPC that needs to be passed from driver to
>> mac80211 and its RC/TPC algorithms like Minstrel_HT. It corresponds to
>> one stage in an mrr. Multiple subsequent instances of this struct can be
>> included in struct ieee80211_tx_status via a pointer and a length variable.
>> Those instances can be allocated on-stack. The former reference to a single
>> instance of struct rate_info is replaced with our new annotation.
>> Further mandatory changes in status.c and mt76 driver due to the
>> removal of 'struct rate_info *rate' are also included.
>> status.c already uses the information in ieee80211_tx_status->rate in
>> radiotap, this is now changed to use ieee80211_rate_status->rate_idx.
>> mt76 driver already uses struct rate_info to pass the tx rate to status
>> path. It is now enclosed in an instance of struct ieee80211_rate_status
>> with default values for retry_count and tx_power. The latter should be
>> adjusted later to pass more accurate values.
>> Compile-Tested: current wireless-next tree with all flags on
>> Tested-on: Xiaomi 4A Gigabit (MediaTek MT7603E, MT7612E) with OpenWrt
>> 		Linux 5.10.83
>> Signed-off-by: Jonas Jelonek <jelonek.jonas@gmail.com>
>> ---
>>  drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c | 13 +++-
>>  include/net/mac80211.h                  | 10 ++-
>>  net/mac80211/status.c                   | 91 ++++++++++++++-----------
>>  3 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>> index 6b8c9dc80542..ed3f3654999f 100644
>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>> @@ -62,13 +62,20 @@ mt76_tx_status_unlock(struct mt76_dev *dev, struct sk_buff_head *list)
>>  		};
>>  		struct mt76_tx_cb *cb = mt76_tx_skb_cb(skb);
>>  		struct mt76_wcid *wcid;
>> +		struct ieee80211_rate_status rate = {0};
>>    		wcid = rcu_dereference(dev->wcid[cb->wcid]);
>>  		if (wcid) {
>>  			status.sta = wcid_to_sta(wcid);
>> -
>> -			if (status.sta)
>> -				status.rate = &wcid->rate;
>> +			if (status.sta) {
>> +				rate.rate_idx = wcid->rate;
>> +				rate.retry_count = 1;
>> +				/* Default 0 for now, can be used by TPC algorithm */
>> +				rate.tx_power = 0;
>> +
>> +				status.rates = &rate;
>> +				status.n_rates = 1;
>> +			}
>>  		}
>>    		hw = mt76_tx_status_get_hw(dev, skb);
>> diff --git a/include/net/mac80211.h b/include/net/mac80211.h
>> index c50221d7e82c..1e98ed04b446 100644
>> --- a/include/net/mac80211.h
>> +++ b/include/net/mac80211.h
>> @@ -1131,6 +1131,12 @@ ieee80211_info_get_tx_time_est(struct ieee80211_tx_info *info)
>>  	return info->tx_time_est << 2;
>>  }
>>  +struct ieee80211_rate_status {
>> +	struct rate_info rate_idx;
>> +	u8 retry_count;
>> +	s8 tx_power;
>> +};
> 
> Please document the units for tx_power.  Many chips can support 1/2 db increments, for instance,
> so consider that for units...  A zero txpower is still a valid number, so you probably need
> something other than 0 to be the 'default'.  Like -128?

Certain 802.11a/g/n Atheros chips provide a 0,5dB tx-power step granularity, while Mediatek 802.11ac chips have 1dB or even 3dB step width. So I would argue that a 1dB step width is a good compromise as the common value for new tpc algorithms.

The ath9k chips I have used so far support a minimum tx-power of -5dBm (=0,32mW), Mediatek has a min of 0dBm (=1mW)… so I would argue to use 0dBm  (=1mW) as common minimum tx-power value, as the any possible spatial reuse gain happens from 0dBm up to max tx-power.

> 
> And, does 'retry_count' actually mean 'try_count'?  So a single tx would be retry_count = 1?
> Please document that as well.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ben

Greetings Thomas
Ben Greear March 10, 2022, 4:43 p.m. UTC | #3
On 3/10/22 8:07 AM, Thomas Hühn wrote:
> Hiho
> 
>> On 9. Mar 2022, at 21:38, Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 3/9/22 11:57 AM, Jonas Jelonek wrote:
>>> This patch adds the new struct ieee80211_rate_status and replaces
>>> 'struct rate_info *rate' in ieee80211_tx_status with pointer and length
>>> annotation.
>>> The struct ieee80211_rate_status allows to:
>>> (1)	receive tx power status feedback for transmit power control (TPC)
>>> 	per packet or packet retry
>>> (2)	dynamic mapping of wifi chip specific multi-rate retry (mrr)
>>> 	chains with different lengths
>>> (3)	increase the limit of annotatable rate indices to support
>>> 	IEEE802.11ac rate sets and beyond
>>> ieee80211_tx_info, control and status buffer, and ieee80211_tx_rate
>>> cannot be used to achieve these goals due to fixed size limitations.
>>> Our new struct contains a struct rate_info to annotate the rate that was
>>> used, retry count of the rate and tx power. It is intended for all
>>> information related to RC and TPC that needs to be passed from driver to
>>> mac80211 and its RC/TPC algorithms like Minstrel_HT. It corresponds to
>>> one stage in an mrr. Multiple subsequent instances of this struct can be
>>> included in struct ieee80211_tx_status via a pointer and a length variable.
>>> Those instances can be allocated on-stack. The former reference to a single
>>> instance of struct rate_info is replaced with our new annotation.
>>> Further mandatory changes in status.c and mt76 driver due to the
>>> removal of 'struct rate_info *rate' are also included.
>>> status.c already uses the information in ieee80211_tx_status->rate in
>>> radiotap, this is now changed to use ieee80211_rate_status->rate_idx.
>>> mt76 driver already uses struct rate_info to pass the tx rate to status
>>> path. It is now enclosed in an instance of struct ieee80211_rate_status
>>> with default values for retry_count and tx_power. The latter should be
>>> adjusted later to pass more accurate values.
>>> Compile-Tested: current wireless-next tree with all flags on
>>> Tested-on: Xiaomi 4A Gigabit (MediaTek MT7603E, MT7612E) with OpenWrt
>>> 		Linux 5.10.83
>>> Signed-off-by: Jonas Jelonek <jelonek.jonas@gmail.com>
>>> ---
>>>   drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c | 13 +++-
>>>   include/net/mac80211.h                  | 10 ++-
>>>   net/mac80211/status.c                   | 91 ++++++++++++++-----------
>>>   3 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>>> index 6b8c9dc80542..ed3f3654999f 100644
>>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/tx.c
>>> @@ -62,13 +62,20 @@ mt76_tx_status_unlock(struct mt76_dev *dev, struct sk_buff_head *list)
>>>   		};
>>>   		struct mt76_tx_cb *cb = mt76_tx_skb_cb(skb);
>>>   		struct mt76_wcid *wcid;
>>> +		struct ieee80211_rate_status rate = {0};
>>>     		wcid = rcu_dereference(dev->wcid[cb->wcid]);
>>>   		if (wcid) {
>>>   			status.sta = wcid_to_sta(wcid);
>>> -
>>> -			if (status.sta)
>>> -				status.rate = &wcid->rate;
>>> +			if (status.sta) {
>>> +				rate.rate_idx = wcid->rate;
>>> +				rate.retry_count = 1;
>>> +				/* Default 0 for now, can be used by TPC algorithm */
>>> +				rate.tx_power = 0;
>>> +
>>> +				status.rates = &rate;
>>> +				status.n_rates = 1;
>>> +			}
>>>   		}
>>>     		hw = mt76_tx_status_get_hw(dev, skb);
>>> diff --git a/include/net/mac80211.h b/include/net/mac80211.h
>>> index c50221d7e82c..1e98ed04b446 100644
>>> --- a/include/net/mac80211.h
>>> +++ b/include/net/mac80211.h
>>> @@ -1131,6 +1131,12 @@ ieee80211_info_get_tx_time_est(struct ieee80211_tx_info *info)
>>>   	return info->tx_time_est << 2;
>>>   }
>>>   +struct ieee80211_rate_status {
>>> +	struct rate_info rate_idx;
>>> +	u8 retry_count;
>>> +	s8 tx_power;
>>> +};
>>
>> Please document the units for tx_power.  Many chips can support 1/2 db increments, for instance,
>> so consider that for units...  A zero txpower is still a valid number, so you probably need
>> something other than 0 to be the 'default'.  Like -128?
> 
> Certain 802.11a/g/n Atheros chips provide a 0,5dB tx-power step granularity, while Mediatek 802.11ac chips have 1dB or even 3dB step width. So I would argue that a 1dB step width is a good compromise as the common value for new tpc algorithms.

If you use 0.5db units for that struct, then it will support anything with that granularity or higher.
But, fine with me if you want to just have it be 1db units.

> 
> The ath9k chips I have used so far support a minimum tx-power of -5dBm (=0,32mW), Mediatek has a min of 0dBm (=1mW)… so I would argue to use 0dBm  (=1mW) as common minimum tx-power value, as the any possible spatial reuse gain happens from 0dBm up to max tx-power.

If a chip supports setting to txpower to -5, then why not let the API support that?  Have The value -128
be 'do not set', and anything else will mean 'try to set the chip to this power or the nearest thing to it
that the chip supports'.

Thanks,
Ben

> 
>>
>> And, does 'retry_count' actually mean 'try_count'?  So a single tx would be retry_count = 1?
>> Please document that as well.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
> 
> Greetings Thomas
>
Jonas Jelonek March 10, 2022, 5:27 p.m. UTC | #4
On 3/10/22 16:43 UTC, Ben Greear wrote:
> >
> > Certain 802.11a/g/n Atheros chips provide a 0,5dB tx-power step granularity, while Mediatek 802.11ac chips have 1dB or even 3dB step width. So I would argue that a 1dB step width is a good compromise as the common value for new tpc algorithms.
>
> If you use 0.5db units for that struct, then it will support anything with that granularity or higher.
> But, fine with me if you want to just have it be 1db units.
>
using 0.5db is more appropriate for the already existing chips that
support this granularity, and is more future-proof.
1db units may be easier to handle for the API and/or TPC algorithms
but again limits existing hardware capabilities.

> > The ath9k chips I have used so far support a minimum tx-power of -5dBm (=0,32mW), Mediatek has a min of 0dBm (=1mW)… so I would argue to use 0dBm  (=1mW) as common minimum tx-power value, as the any possible spatial reuse gain happens from 0dBm up to max tx-power.
>
> If a chip supports setting to txpower to -5, then why not let the API support that?  Have The value -128
> be 'do not set', and anything else will mean 'try to set the chip to this power or the nearest thing to it
> that the chip supports'.

I agree with that, having -128 as value for 'not set' or 'invalid'
would leave the negative dBm for chips that support this.
Whether the TPC then actually makes use of this should not be the
reason to use 0 as default.

To your previous question:
retry_count = 1 is intended to be a single tx, so naming the struct
member 'try_count' would be more appropriate?

Besides this, I will add proper documentation for this in the
following patch version to clarify the units and meanings.
Ben Greear March 10, 2022, 5:33 p.m. UTC | #5
On 3/10/22 9:27 AM, Jonas Jelonek wrote:
> On 3/10/22 16:43 UTC, Ben Greear wrote:
>>>
>>> Certain 802.11a/g/n Atheros chips provide a 0,5dB tx-power step granularity, while Mediatek 802.11ac chips have 1dB or even 3dB step width. So I would argue that a 1dB step width is a good compromise as the common value for new tpc algorithms.
>>
>> If you use 0.5db units for that struct, then it will support anything with that granularity or higher.
>> But, fine with me if you want to just have it be 1db units.
>>
> using 0.5db is more appropriate for the already existing chips that
> support this granularity, and is more future-proof.
> 1db units may be easier to handle for the API and/or TPC algorithms
> but again limits existing hardware capabilities.
> 
>>> The ath9k chips I have used so far support a minimum tx-power of -5dBm (=0,32mW), Mediatek has a min of 0dBm (=1mW)… so I would argue to use 0dBm  (=1mW) as common minimum tx-power value, as the any possible spatial reuse gain happens from 0dBm up to max tx-power.
>>
>> If a chip supports setting to txpower to -5, then why not let the API support that?  Have The value -128
>> be 'do not set', and anything else will mean 'try to set the chip to this power or the nearest thing to it
>> that the chip supports'.
> 
> I agree with that, having -128 as value for 'not set' or 'invalid'
> would leave the negative dBm for chips that support this.
> Whether the TPC then actually makes use of this should not be the
> reason to use 0 as default.
> 
> To your previous question:
> retry_count = 1 is intended to be a single tx, so naming the struct
> member 'try_count' would be more appropriate?

Yes, I think so.

In my own hackings, I have also used a try_count of '0' to mean try once
but request NOACK on the frame.  I am not sure if that even applies in
your case though...

Thanks,
Ben

> 
> Besides this, I will add proper documentation for this in the
> following patch version to clarify the units and meanings.