Sunday, January 1, 2017

Interaction between TLP (Tail Loss Probe) and SolarFlare EF_DYNAMIC_ACK_THRESH

In this blogtorial I will briefly discuss a performance issue that had me stumped for a bit. But after some googling around I stumbled up on the answer. I then started to take apart the RFC to gain a better understanding at the mischievous protocols at play. Oil powers the world and water sustains life, however they do not mix well together and the same concept applies here. Tail loss probe on its own is a great feature reducing the time it takes to detect packet loss and makes the TCP connection much more efficient. SolarFlare EF_DYNAMIC_ACK_THRESH is also a great feature which helps TCP performance. But enable these features at the same time and your TCP performance will suffer greatly.