From owner-freebsd-net Mon Jul 5 13:53:43 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from implode.root.com (root.com [209.102.106.178]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D6A414ED3 for ; Mon, 5 Jul 1999 13:53:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from root@implode.root.com) Received: from implode.root.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by implode.root.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA05826; Mon, 5 Jul 1999 13:53:02 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199907052053.NAA05826@implode.root.com> To: Dann Lunsford Cc: Net@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mbuf-less IP? In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 05 Jul 1999 09:33:56 PDT." <3780DE74.2DD4F526@greycat.com> From: David Greenman Reply-To: dg@root.com Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 13:53:02 -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >Just a question out of pure curiosity. I've been studying the Stevens >set ("TCP/IP Illustrated", all three vols) and came across a comment >that Van Jacobson had an experimental IP stack that didn't use the mbuf >structures. The reasoning was that the current implementation was >designed when memory was much more constrained, CPU speed was lower, and >networks weren't as fast or fat. Reportedly, Jacobson found >siginificant performance improvements and better resource utilization >over current, mbuf based, implementations. > >So... Has anybody looked into this idea? I realize it would entail >*MAJOR* rewrites and redesigns, and would not be undertaken lightly, but >perhaps it would be worth considering for the future. The current >design smacks of "It's always been done that way"; whenever I hear that >phrase, a chill goes up my spine :-). > >Anyway, that's it. Just tossing it into the ring; please don't throw >knives back :-). We've made substantial improvements in FreeBSD to the way that mbufs are allocated and used which have mitigated much of the old problems. It could still be a lot better, however. It's really the socket layer that needs the rewrite; I don't think the TCP/IP stack itself would be that difficult. -DG David Greenman Co-founder/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org Creator of high-performance Internet servers - http://www.terasolutions.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-net" in the body of the message