• Gerrit Renker's avatar
    [DCCP] ccid3: Deprecate TFRC_SMALLEST_P · 44158306
    Gerrit Renker authored
     This patch deprecates the existing use of an arbitrary value TFRC_SMALLEST_P
     for low-threshold values of p. This avoids masking low-resolution errors.
     Instead, the code now checks against real boundaries (implemented by preceding
     patch) and provides warnings whenever a real value falls below the threshold.
    
     If such messages are observed, it is a better solution to take this as an
     indication that the lookup table needs to be re-engineered.
    
    Changelog:
    ----------
     This patch
       * makes handling all TFRC resolution errors local to the TFRC library
    
       * removes unnecessary test whether X_calc is 'infinity' due to p==0 -- this
         condition is already caught by tfrc_calc_x()
    
       * removes setting ccid3hctx_p = TFRC_SMALLEST_P in ccid3_hc_tx_packet_recv
         since this is now done by the TFRC library
    
       * updates BUG_ON test in ccid3_hc_tx_no_feedback_timer to take into account
         that p now is either 0 (and then X_calc is irrelevant), or it is > 0; since
         the handling of TFRC_SMALLEST_P is now taken care of in the tfrc library
    
    Justification:
    --------------
     The TFRC code uses a lookup table which has a bounded resolution.
     The lowest possible value of the loss event rate `p' which can be
     resolved is currently 0.0001.  Substituting this lower threshold for
     p when p is less than 0.0001 results in a huge, exponentially-growing
     error.  The error can be computed by the following formula:
    
        (f(0.0001) - f(p))/f(p) * 100      for p < 0.0001
    
     Currently the solution is to use an (arbitrary) value
         TFRC_SMALLEST_P  =   40 * 1E-6   =   0.00004
     and to consider all values below this value as `virtually zero'.  Due to
     the exponentially growing resolution error, this is not a good idea, since
     it hides the fact that the table can not resolve practically occurring cases.
     Already at p == TFRC_SMALLEST_P, the error is as high as 58.19%!
    Signed-off-by: default avatarGerrit Renker <gerrit@erg.abdn.ac.uk>
    Acked-by: default avatarIan McDonald <ian.mcdonald@jandi.co.nz>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarArnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@mandriva.com>
    44158306
ccid3.h 6.36 KB