ANNOUNCE: debloat-testing kernel git tree

[John W. Linville]

Announcement

The bufferbloat project [1] is pleased to announce the availability
of the debloat-testing Linux kernel git tree:

	git://git.infradead.org/debloat-testing.git

The purpose of this tree is to provide a reasonably stable base for
the development and testing of new algorithms, miscellaneous fixes,
and maybe a few hacks intended to advance the cause of eliminating
or at least mitigating bufferbloat in the Linux world.

Introduction

Bufferbloat is a term coined by Jim Gettys to describe the increasing
prevalence of large and (particularly) unmanaged network buffers along
the network links that comprise the Internet [2].  If you are not aware
of the problems with network latency under load that the Internet is
already encountering, we encourage you to visit Jim Gettys' blog [3].
There Jim has begun to fit together enough puzzle pieces to at least
frame the issue.

Jim has also made available slides and an audio recording (edited
for time) from a presentation on this topic:

	http://mirrors.bufferbloat.net/Talks/BellLabs01192011/

Kernel Bits

The debloat-testing tree is intended to track full and -rc releases
from linux-2.6, with interesting patches cherry-picked from net-next
and various experimental bits added on top.  The current stable of
such patches includes the following:

Eric Dumazet (based on original work by Juliusz Chroboczek):
      net_sched: SFB flow scheduler

stephen hemminger:
      sched: CHOKe flow scheduler

John Fastabend:
      net: implement mechanism for HW based QOS
      net_sched: implement a root container qdisc sch_mqprio

John W. Linville:
      mac80211: implement eBDP algorithm to fight bufferbloat

Nathaniel J. Smith:
      iwlwifi: Simplify tx queue management
      iwlwifi: Convert the tx queue high_mark to an atomic_t
      iwlwifi: Invert the sense of the queue high_mark
      iwlwifi: auto-tune tx queue size to minimize latency
      iwlwifi: make current tx queue sizes visible in debugfs

Dave Taht:
      Bufferbloat reduction for the e1000 driver that started it all
      Reduce bufferbloated default for e1000e, increase dynamic range
      Smash bufferbloat in the ath9k driver

Userland Bits

Patches for the userspace tc utility incorporating support for both the
CHOKe AQM and the Stochastic Fair Blue scheduler (SFB) are available:

	https://github.com/dtaht/iproute2bufferbloat

Contributions

Please send any experimental or research-oriented patches related to
bufferbloat to the bloat-devel at lists.bufferbloat.net list.  Reminders
of more mainstream patches that may be relevant and/or interesting
for cherry-picking into debloat-testing are welcome there as well.

Obviously, patches that are ready for normal merge consideration
should continue to be sent to netdev, linux-wireless, linux-kernel,
or whatever other existing list is appropriate for them.

Thanks

Finally, we want to offer a huge thanks to the 130+ new members of
the bloat mailing list [4] for leaping into the fray, and to David
Woodhouse for hosting the debloat-testing tree at infradead.

Please help us beat the bloat.  Good luck, and happy debloating!

Notes

[1] http://bufferbloat.net
[2] http://gettys.wordpress.com/what-is-bufferbloat-anyway/
[3] http://en.wordpress.com/tag/bufferbloat/
[4] https://lists.bufferbloat.net
--
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.