[PATCH v2] net: stmmac: Improve Tx timer arm logic further

[Jacob Keller]

On 5/26/2026 7:33 PM, muhammad.nazim.amirul.nazle.asmade at altera.com wrote:
> From: Nazim Amirul <muhammad.nazim.amirul.nazle.asmade at altera.com>
> 
> Calling hrtimer_start() on an already-active txtimer is unnecessary
> and expensive. Skip the restart if the timer is already active by
> adding an hrtimer_active() check before hrtimer_start().
> 
> This avoids redundant timer restarts under burst traffic and ensures
> NAPI is scheduled within tx_coal_timer microseconds of the first
> packet rather than having the window reset on every packet.
> 
> There is no race concern: hrtimer_start() is internally serialized and
> safe to call on an active timer. In the event of a race between
> hrtimer_active() and hrtimer_start(), the worst case is calling
> hrtimer_start() on an already-active timer, which is identical to the
> pre-patch behaviour. The meaning of tx_coal_timer is unchanged.
> 
> Performance on Cyclone V with dwmac-socfpga (iperf3 -u -b 0 -l 64):
>   Before: ~45200 pps
>   After:  ~52300 pps (~15% improvement)
> 
> Additionally, ~10% improvement in UDP throughput observed on Agilex5,
> with hrtimer CPU usage reduced from ~8% to ~0.6%.
> 

Nice improvements! Appreciate seeing the data here.

Reviewed-by: Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller at intel.com>

> Signed-off-by: Rohan G Thomas <rohan.g.thomas at altera.com>
> Tested-by: Maxime Chevallier <maxime.chevallier at bootlin.com>
> Reviewed-by: Maxime Chevallier <maxime.chevallier at bootlin.com>
> Signed-off-by: Nazim Amirul <muhammad.nazim.amirul.nazle.asmade at altera.com>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
>  - Expanded commit message to address race condition concern and clarify
>    tx_coal_timer semantics (Andrew Lunn)
>  - Added performance numbers to commit message (Andrew Lunn)
>  - Added Agilex5 performance data with hrtimer CPU usage improvement
>  - Added Tested-by and Reviewed-by from Maxime Chevallier
> ---
>  drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c | 12 +++++++-----
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions()
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
> index 3591755ea30b..35da51c26248 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
> @@ -3341,12 +3341,14 @@ static void stmmac_tx_timer_arm(struct stmmac_priv *priv, u32 queue)
>  	 * Try to cancel any timer if napi is scheduled, timer will be armed
>  	 * again in the next scheduled napi.
>  	 */
> -	if (unlikely(!napi_is_scheduled(napi)))
> -		hrtimer_start(&tx_q->txtimer,
> -			      STMMAC_COAL_TIMER(tx_coal_timer),
> -			      HRTIMER_MODE_REL);
> -	else
> +	if (unlikely(!napi_is_scheduled(napi))) {
> +		if (unlikely(!(hrtimer_active(&tx_q->txtimer))))
> +			hrtimer_start(&tx_q->txtimer,
> +				      STMMAC_COAL_TIMER(tx_coal_timer),
> +				      HRTIMER_MODE_REL);
> +	} else {
>  		hrtimer_try_to_cancel(&tx_q->txtimer);
> +	}
>  }
>  
>  /**