Introduce page_pool support in virtio_net driver to enable page
recycling in RX buffer allocation and avoid repeated page allocator
calls. This applies to mergeable and small buffer modes.
Beyond performance improvements, this patch is a prerequisite for
enabling memory provider-based zero-copy features in virtio_net,
specifically devmem TCP and io_uring ZCRX, which require drivers to
use page_pool for buffer management.
The implementation preserves the DMA premapping optimization introduced
in commit 31f3cd4e5756 ("virtio-net: rq submits premapped per-buffer")
by conditionally using PP_FLAG_DMA_MAP when the virtio backend supports
standard DMA API (vhost, virtio-pci), and falling back to
allocation-only mode for backends with custom DMA mechanisms (VDUSE).
================================================================================
VIRTIO-NET PAGE POOL BENCHMARK RESULTS
================================================================================
CONFIGURATION
-------------
- Host: pktgen TX → tap interface → vhost-net
- Guest: virtio-net RX → XDP_DROP
- Packet sizes: small buffers - 64; merge receivable 64, 1500
SMALL PACKETS (64 bytes)
==================================================
Queues | Base (pps) | Page Pool (pps) | Improvement | Base (Gb/s) |PP (Gb/s)
-------|-------------|-----------------|-------------|-------------|----------
1Q | 853,493 | 868,923 | +1.8% | 0.44 | 0.44
2Q | 1,655,793 | 1,696,707 | +2.5% | 0.85 | 0.87
4Q | 3,143,375 | 3,302,511 | +5.1% | 1.61 | 1.69
8Q | 6,082,590 | 6,156,894 | +1.2% | 3.11 | 3.15
RECEIVE MERGEABLE (64 bytes)
======================================================
Queues | Base (pps) | Page Pool (pps) | Improvement | Base (Gb/s) |PP (Gb/s)
-------|-------------|-----------------|-------------|-------------|----------
1Q | 766,168 | 814,493 | +6.3% | 0.39 | 0.42
2Q | 1,384,871 | 1,670,639 | +20.6% | 0.71 | 0.86
4Q | 2,773,081 | 3,080,574 | +11.1% | 1.42 | 1.58
8Q | 5,600,615 | 6,043,891 | +7.9% | 2.87 | 3.10
RECEIVE MERGEABLE (1500 bytes)
========================================================
Queues | Base (pps) | Page Pool (pps) | Improvement | Base (Gb/s) |PP (Gb/s)
-------|-------------|-----------------|-------------|-------------|----------
1Q | 741,579 | 785,442 | +5.9% | 8.90 | 9.43
2Q | 1,310,043 | 1,534,554 | +17.1% | 15.72 | 18.41
4Q | 2,748,700 | 2,890,582 | +5.2% | 32.98 | 34.69
8Q | 5,348,589 | 5,618,664 | +5.0% | 64.18 | 67.42
The page_pool implementation showed consistent performance improvements
by eliminating per packet overhead of allocating and deallocating
memory. When running the performance benchmarks, I noticed that
page_pool also had a consistent throughput performance compared to the
base patch where performance variability was due to accessing free_list
for getting the next set of pages.
Changes in v3
=============
Addressing reviewer feedback from v2:
- Fix CI null-ptr-deref crash: use max_queue_pairs instead of
curr_queue_pairs in virtnet_create_page_pools() to ensure page pools
are created for all queues (Jason Wang, Jakub Kicinski)
- Preserve big_packets mode page->private chaining in page_to_skb() with
conditional checks (Jason Wang)
- Use page_pool_alloc_pages() in xdp_linearize_page() and
mergeable_xdp_get_buf() to eliminate xdp_page tracking logic and simplify
skb_mark_for_recycle() calls (Jason Wang)
- Add page_pool_page_is_pp() check in virtnet_put_page() to safely
handle both page_pool and non-page_pool pages (Michael S. Tsirkin)
- Remove unrelated rx_mode_work_enabled changes (Jason Wang)
- Selftest: use random ephemeral port instead of hardcoded port to avoid
conflicts
when running tests in parallel (Michael S. Tsirkin)
- v2 link:
https://lore.kernel.org/virtualization/[email protected]/
Changes in v2
=============
Addressing reviewer feedback from v1:
- Add "select PAGE_POOL" to Kconfig (Jason Wang)
- Move page pool creation from ndo_open to probe for device lifetime
management (Xuan Zhuo, Jason Wang)
- Implement conditional DMA strategy using virtqueue_dma_dev():
- When non-NULL: use PP_FLAG_DMA_MAP for page_pool-managed DMA
premapping
- When NULL (VDUSE): page_pool handles allocation only
- Use page_pool_get_dma_addr() + virtqueue_add_inbuf_premapped() to
preserve DMA premapping optimization from commit 31f3cd4e5756
("virtio-net: rq submits premapped per-buffer") (Jason Wang)
- Remove dual allocation code paths - page_pool now always used for
small/mergeable modes (Jason Wang)
- Remove unused virtnet_rq_alloc/virtnet_rq_init_one_sg functions
- Add comprehensive performance data (Michael S. Tsirkin)
- v1 link:
https://lore.kernel.org/virtualization/[email protected]/
Vishwanath Seshagiri (2):
virtio_net: add page_pool support for buffer allocation
selftests: virtio_net: add buffer circulation test
drivers/net/Kconfig | 1 +
drivers/net/virtio_net.c | 360 ++++++++++--------
.../drivers/net/virtio_net/basic_features.sh | 86 +++++
3 files changed, 292 insertions(+), 155 deletions(-)
--
2.47.3
