[PATCH 8/8] tftp: add some documentation about windowsize support
Enrico Scholz
enrico.scholz at sigma-chemnitz.de
Sun Aug 28 07:02:31 PDT 2022
Signed-off-by: Enrico Scholz <enrico.scholz at sigma-chemnitz.de>
---
Documentation/filesystems/tftp.rst | 38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 38 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/tftp.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/tftp.rst
index a292765e2511..8929213d3c4a 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/tftp.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/tftp.rst
@@ -20,3 +20,41 @@ Example:
In addition to the TFTP filesystem implementation, barebox does also have a
:ref:`tftp command <command_tftp>`.
+
+RFC 7440 "windowsize" support
+=============================
+
+barebox supports the tftp windowsize option for downloading files. It
+is not implemented for uploads.
+
+Generally, this option greatly improves the download speed (factors
+4-30 are not uncommon). But choosing a too large windowsize can have
+the opposite effect. Performance depends on:
+
+ - the network infrastructure: when the tftp server sends files with
+ 1Gb/s but there are components in the network (switches or the
+ target nic) which support only 100 Mb/s, packets will be dropped.
+
+ The lower the internal buffers of the bottleneck components, the
+ lower the optimal window size.
+
+ In practice (iMX8MP on a Netgear GS108Ev3 with a port configured to
+ 100 Mb/s) it had to be reduced to
+
+ .. code-block:: console
+ global tftp.windowsize=26
+
+ for example.
+
+ - the target network driver: datagrams from server will arive faster
+ than they can be processed and must be buffered internally. For
+ example, the `fec-imx` driver reserves place for
+
+ .. code-block:: c
+ #define FEC_RBD_NUM 64
+
+ packets before they are dropped
+
+ - partially the workload: copying downloaded files to ram will be
+ faster than burning them into flash. Latter can consume internal
+ buffers quicker so that windowsize might be reduced
--
2.37.2
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