1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 2010 The FreeBSD Foundation 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" Portions of this software were developed at the Centre for Advanced 6.\" Internet Architectures, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, 7.\" Australia by Lawrence Stewart under sponsorship from the FreeBSD 8.\" Foundation. 9.\" 10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 12.\" are met: 13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer, 15.\" without modification, immediately at the beginning of the file. 16.\" 2. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products 17.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR 23.\" ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" $FreeBSD$ 32.\" 33.Dd November 12, 2010 34.Dt SIFTR 4 35.Os 36.Sh NAME 37.Nm SIFTR 38.Nd Statistical Information For TCP Research 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40To load 41the driver 42as a module at run-time, run the following command as root: 43.Bd -literal -offset indent 44kldload siftr 45.Ed 46.Pp 47Alternatively, to load 48the driver 49as a module at boot time, add the following line into the 50.Xr loader.conf 5 51file: 52.Bd -literal -offset indent 53siftr_load="YES" 54.Ed 55.Sh DESCRIPTION 56The 57.Nm 58.Po 59.Em S Ns tatistical 60.Em I Ns nformation 61.Em F Ns or 62.Em T Ns CP 63.Em R Ns esearch 64.Pc 65kernel module logs a range of statistics on active TCP connections to 66a log file. 67It provides the ability to make highly granular measurements of TCP connection 68state, aimed at system administrators, developers and researchers. 69.Ss Compile-time Configuration 70The default operation of 71.Nm 72is to capture IPv4 TCP/IP packets. 73.Nm 74can be configured to support IPv4 and IPv6 by uncommenting: 75.Bd -literal -offset indent 76CFLAGS+=-DSIFTR_IPV6 77.Ed 78.Pp 79in 80.Aq sys/modules/siftr/Makefile 81and recompiling. 82.Pp 83In the IPv4-only (default) mode, standard dotted decimal notation (e.g. 84"136.186.229.95") is used to format IPv4 addresses for logging. 85In IPv6 mode, standard dotted decimal notation is used to format IPv4 addresses, 86and standard colon-separated hex notation (see RFC 4291) is used to format IPv6 87addresses for logging. Note that SIFTR uses uncompressed notation to format IPv6 88addresses. 89For example, the address "fe80::20f:feff:fea2:531b" would be logged as 90"fe80:0:0:0:20f:feff:fea2:531b". 91.Ss Run-time Configuration 92.Nm 93utilises the 94.Xr sysctl 8 95interface to export its configuration variables to user-space. 96The following variables are available: 97.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 98.It Va net.inet.siftr.enabled 99controls whether the module performs its 100measurements or not. 101By default, the value is set to 0, which means the module 102will not be taking any measurements. 103Having the module loaded with 104.Va net.inet.siftr.enabled 105set to 0 will have no impact on the performance of the network stack, as the 106packet filtering hooks are only inserted when 107.Va net.inet.siftr.enabled 108is set to 1. 109.El 110.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 111.It Va net.inet.siftr.ppl 112controls how many inbound/outbound packets for a given TCP connection will cause 113a log message to be generated for the connection. 114By default, the value is set to 1, which means the module will log a message for 115every packet of every TCP connection. 116The value can be set to any integer in the range [1,2^32], and can be changed at 117any time, even while the module is enabled. 118.El 119.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 120.It Va net.inet.siftr.logfile 121controls the path to the file that the module writes its log messages to. 122By default, the file /var/log/siftr.log is used. 123The path can be changed at any time, even while the module is enabled. 124.El 125.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 126.It Va net.inet.siftr.genhashes 127controls whether a hash is generated for each TCP packet seen by 128.Nm . 129By default, the value is set to 0, which means no hashes are generated. 130The hashes are useful to correlate which TCP packet triggered the generation of 131a particular log message, but calculating them adds additional computational 132overhead into the fast path. 133.El 134.Ss Log Format 135A typical 136.Nm 137log file will contain 3 different types of log message. 138All messages are written in plain ASCII text. 139.Pp 140Note: The 141.Qq \e 142present in the example log messages in this section indicates a 143line continuation and is not part of the actual log message. 144.Pp 145The first type of log message is written to the file when the module is 146enabled and starts collecting data from the running kernel. The text below 147shows an example module enable log. The fields are tab delimited key-value 148pairs which describe some basic information about the system. 149.Bd -literal -offset indent 150enable_time_secs=1238556193 enable_time_usecs=462104 \\ 151siftrver=1.2.2 hz=1000 tcp_rtt_scale=32 \\ 152sysname=FreeBSD sysver=604000 ipmode=4 153.Ed 154.Pp 155Field descriptions are as follows: 156.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 157.It Va enable_time_secs 158time at which the module was enabled, in seconds since the UNIX epoch. 159.El 160.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 161.It Va enable_time_usecs 162time at which the module was enabled, in microseconds since enable_time_secs. 163.El 164.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 165.It Va siftrver 166version of 167.Nm . 168.El 169.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 170.It Va hz 171tick rate of the kernel in ticks per second. 172.El 173.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 174.It Va tcp_rtt_scale 175smoothed RTT estimate scaling factor. 176.El 177.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 178.It Va sysname 179operating system name. 180.El 181.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 182.It Va sysver 183operating system version. 184.El 185.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 186.It Va ipmode 187IP mode as defined at compile time. 188An ipmode of "4" means IPv6 is not supported and IP addresses are logged in 189regular dotted quad format. 190An ipmode of "6" means IPv6 is supported, and IP addresses are logged in dotted 191quad or hex format, as described in the 192.Qq Compile-time Configuration 193subsection. 194.El 195.Pp 196The second type of log message is written to the file when a data log message 197is generated. 198The text below shows an example data log triggered by an IPv4 199TCP/IP packet. 200The data is CSV formatted. 201.Bd -literal -offset indent 202o,0xbec491a5,1238556193.463551,172.16.7.28,22,172.16.2.5,55931, \\ 2031073725440,172312,6144,66560,66608,8,1,4,1448,936,1,996,255, \\ 20433304,208,66608,0,208,0 205.Ed 206.Pp 207Field descriptions are as follows: 208.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 209.It Va 1 210Direction of packet that triggered the log message. 211Either 212.Qq i 213for in, or 214.Qq o 215for out. 216.El 217.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 218.It Va 2 219Hash of the packet that triggered the log message. 220.El 221.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 222.It Va 3 223Time at which the packet that triggered the log message was processed by 224the 225.Xr pfil 9 226hook function, in seconds and microseconds since the UNIX epoch. 227.El 228.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 229.It Va 4 230The IPv4 or IPv6 address of the local host, in dotted quad (IPv4 packet) 231or colon-separated hex (IPv6 packet) notation. 232.El 233.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 234.It Va 5 235The TCP port that the local host is communicating via. 236.El 237.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 238.It Va 6 239The IPv4 or IPv6 address of the foreign host, in dotted quad (IPv4 packet) 240or colon-separated hex (IPv6 packet) notation. 241.El 242.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 243.It Va 7 244The TCP port that the foreign host is communicating via. 245.El 246.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 247.It Va 8 248The slow start threshold for the flow, in bytes. 249.El 250.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 251.It Va 9 252The current congestion window for the flow, in bytes. 253.El 254.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 255.It Va 10 256The current bandwidth-controlled window for the flow, in bytes. 257.El 258.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 259.It Va 11 260The current sending window for the flow, in bytes. 261The post scaled value is reported, except during the initial handshake (first 262few packets), during which time the unscaled value is reported. 263.El 264.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 265.It Va 12 266The current receive window for the flow, in bytes. 267The post scaled value is always reported. 268.El 269.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 270.It Va 13 271The current window scaling factor for the sending window. 272.El 273.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 274.It Va 14 275The current window scaling factor for the receiving window. 276.El 277.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 278.It Va 15 279The current state of the TCP finite state machine, as defined 280in 281.Aq Pa netinet/tcp_fsm.h . 282.El 283.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 284.It Va 16 285The maximum segment size for the flow, in bytes. 286.El 287.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 288.It Va 17 289The current smoothed RTT estimate for the flow, in units of TCP_RTT_SCALE * HZ, 290where TCP_RTT_SCALE is a define found in tcp_var.h, and HZ is the kernel's tick 291timer. 292Divide by TCP_RTT_SCALE * HZ to get the RTT in secs. TCP_RTT_SCALE and HZ are 293reported in the enable log message. 294.El 295.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 296.It Va 18 297SACK enabled indicator. 1 if SACK enabled, 0 otherwise. 298.El 299.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 300.It Va 19 301The current state of the TCP flags for the flow. 302See 303.Aq Pa netinet/tcp_var.h 304for information about the various flags. 305.El 306.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 307.It Va 20 308The current retransmission timeout length for the flow, in units of HZ, where HZ 309is the kernel's tick timer. 310Divide by HZ to get the timeout length in seconds. HZ is reported in the 311enable log message. 312.El 313.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 314.It Va 21 315The current size of the socket send buffer in bytes. 316.El 317.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 318.It Va 22 319The current number of bytes in the socket send buffer. 320.El 321.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 322.It Va 23 323The current size of the socket receive buffer in bytes. 324.El 325.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 326.It Va 24 327The current number of bytes in the socket receive buffer. 328.El 329.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 330.It Va 25 331The current number of unacknowledged bytes in-flight. 332Bytes acknowledged via SACK are not excluded from this count. 333.El 334.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 335.It Va 26 336The current number of segments in the reassembly queue. 337.El 338.Pp 339The third type of log message is written to the file when the module is disabled 340and ceases collecting data from the running kernel. 341The text below shows an example module disable log. 342The fields are tab delimited key-value pairs which provide statistics about 343operations since the module was most recently enabled. 344.Bd -literal -offset indent 345disable_time_secs=1238556197 disable_time_usecs=933607 \\ 346num_inbound_tcp_pkts=356 num_outbound_tcp_pkts=627 \\ 347total_tcp_pkts=983 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_malloc=0 \\ 348num_outbound_skipped_pkts_malloc=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_mtx=0 \\ 349num_outbound_skipped_pkts_mtx=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_tcb=0 \\ 350num_outbound_skipped_pkts_tcb=0 num_inbound_skipped_pkts_icb=0 \\ 351num_outbound_skipped_pkts_icb=0 total_skipped_tcp_pkts=0 \\ 352flow_list=172.16.7.28;22-172.16.2.5;55931, 353.Ed 354.Pp 355Field descriptions are as follows: 356.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 357.It Va disable_time_secs 358Time at which the module was disabled, in seconds since the UNIX epoch. 359.El 360.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 361.It Va disable_time_usecs 362Time at which the module was disabled, in microseconds since disable_time_secs. 363.El 364.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 365.It Va num_inbound_tcp_pkts 366Number of TCP packets that traversed up the network stack. 367This only includes inbound TCP packets during the periods when 368.Nm 369was enabled. 370.El 371.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 372.It Va num_outbound_tcp_pkts 373Number of TCP packets that traversed down the network stack. 374This only includes outbound TCP packets during the periods when 375.Nm 376was enabled. 377.El 378.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 379.It Va total_tcp_pkts 380The summation of num_inbound_tcp_pkts and num_outbound_tcp_pkts. 381.El 382.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 383.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_malloc 384Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failed malloc() calls. 385.El 386.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 387.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_malloc 388Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failed malloc() calls. 389.El 390.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 391.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_mtx 392Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to add the 393packet to the packet processing queue. 394.El 395.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 396.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_mtx 397Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to add the 398packet to the packet processing queue. 399.El 400.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 401.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_tcb 402Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find the 403TCP control block associated with the packet. 404.El 405.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 406.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_tcb 407Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find 408the TCP control block associated with the packet. 409.El 410.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 411.It Va num_inbound_skipped_pkts_icb 412Number of inbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find the 413IP control block associated with the packet. 414.El 415.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 416.It Va num_outbound_skipped_pkts_icb 417Number of outbound packets that were not processed because of failure to find 418the IP control block associated with the packet. 419.El 420.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 421.It Va total_skipped_tcp_pkts 422The summation of all skipped packet counters. 423.El 424.Bl -tag -offset indent -width Va 425.It Va flow_list 426A CSV list of TCP flows that triggered data log messages to be generated since 427the module was loaded. 428Each flow entry in the CSV list is 429formatted as 430.Qq local_ip;local_port-foreign_ip;foreign_port . 431If there are no entries in the list (i.e., no data log messages were generated), 432the value will be blank. 433If there is at least one entry in the list, a trailing comma will always be 434present. 435.El 436.Pp 437The total number of data log messages found in the log file for a module 438enable/disable cycle should equate to total_tcp_pkts - total_skipped_tcp_pkts. 439.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES 440.Nm 441hooks into the network stack using the 442.Xr pfil 9 443interface. 444In its current incarnation, it hooks into the AF_INET/AF_INET6 (IPv4/IPv6) 445.Xr pfil 9 446filtering points, which means it sees packets at the IP layer of the network 447stack. 448This means that TCP packets inbound to the stack are intercepted before 449they have been processed by the TCP layer. 450Packets outbound from the stack are intercepted after they have been processed 451by the TCP layer. 452.Pp 453The diagram below illustrates how 454.Nm 455inserts itself into the stack. 456.Bd -literal -offset indent 457---------------------------------- 458 Upper Layers 459---------------------------------- 460 ^ | 461 | | 462 | | 463 | v 464 TCP in TCP out 465---------------------------------- 466 ^ | 467 |________ _________| 468 | | 469 | v 470 --------- 471 | SIFTR | 472 --------- 473 ^ | 474 ________| |__________ 475 | | 476 | v 477IPv{4/6} in IPv{4/6} out 478---------------------------------- 479 ^ | 480 | | 481 | v 482Layer 2 in Layer 2 out 483---------------------------------- 484 Physical Layer 485---------------------------------- 486.Ed 487.Pp 488.Nm 489uses the 490.Xr alq 9 491interface to manage writing data to disk. 492.Pp 493At first glance, you might mistakenly think that 494.Nm 495extracts information from 496individual TCP packets. 497This is not the case. 498.Nm 499uses TCP packet events (inbound and outbound) for each TCP flow originating from 500the system to trigger a dump of the state of the TCP control block for that 501flow. 502With the PPL set to 1, we are in effect sampling each TCP flow's control block 503state as frequently as flow packets enter/leave the system. 504For example, setting PPL to 2 halves the sampling rate i.e., every second flow 505packet (inbound OR outbound) causes a dump of the control block state. 506.Pp 507The distinction between interrogating individual packets versus interrogating the 508control block is important, because 509.Nm 510does not remove the need for packet capturing tools like 511.Xr tcpdump 1 . 512.Nm 513allows you to correlate and observe the cause-and-affect relationship between 514what you see on the wire (captured using a tool like 515.Xr tcpdump 1 Ns ) 516and changes in the TCP control block corresponding to the flow of interest. 517It is therefore useful to use 518.Nm 519and a tool like 520.Xr tcpdump 1 521to gather the necessary data to piece together the complete picture. 522Use of either tool on its own will not be able to provide all of the necessary 523data. 524.Pp 525As a result of needing to interrogate the TCP control block, certain packets 526during the lifecycle of a connection are unable to trigger a 527.Nm 528log message. 529The initial handshake takes place without the existence of a control block and 530the final ACK is exchanged when the connection is in the TIMEWAIT state. 531.Pp 532.Nm 533was designed to minimise the delay introduced to packets traversing the network 534stack. 535This design called for a highly optimised and minimal hook function that 536extracted the minimal details necessary whilst holding the packet up, and 537passing these details to another thread for actual processing and logging. 538.Pp 539This multithreaded design does introduce some contention issues when accessing 540the data structure shared between the threads of operation. 541When the hook function tries to place details in the structure, it must first 542acquire an exclusive lock. 543Likewise, when the processing thread tries to read details from the structure, 544it must also acquire an exclusive lock to do so. 545If one thread holds the lock, the other must wait before it can obtain it. 546This does introduce some additional bounded delay into the kernel's packet 547processing code path. 548.Pp 549In some cases (e.g., low memory, connection termination), TCP packets that enter 550the 551.Nm 552.Xr pfil 9 553hook function will not trigger a log message to be generated. 554.Nm 555refers to this outcome as a 556.Qq skipped packet . 557Note that 558.Nm 559always ensures that packets are allowed to continue through the stack, even if 560they could not successfully trigger a data log message. 561.Nm 562will therefore not introduce any packet loss for TCP/IP packets traversing the 563network stack. 564.Ss Important Behaviours 565The behaviour of a log file path change whilst the module is enabled is as 566follows: 567.Bl -enum 568.It 569Attempt to open the new file path for writing. 570If this fails, the path change will fail and the existing path will continue to 571be used. 572.It 573Assuming the new path is valid and opened successfully: 574.Bl -dash 575.It 576Flush all pending log messages to the old file path. 577.It 578Close the old file path. 579.It 580Switch the active log file pointer to point at the new file path. 581.It 582Commence logging to the new file. 583.El 584.El 585.Pp 586During the time between the flush of pending log messages to the old file and 587commencing logging to the new file, new log messages will still be generated and 588buffered. 589As soon as the new file path is ready for writing, the accumulated log messages 590will be written out to the file. 591.Sh EXAMPLES 592To enable the module's operations, run the following command as root: 593sysctl net.inet.siftr.enabled=1 594.Pp 595To change the granularity of log messages such that 1 log message is 596generated for every 10 TCP packets per connection, run the following 597command as root: 598sysctl net.inet.siftr.ppl=10 599.Pp 600To change the log file location to /tmp/siftr.log, run the following 601command as root: 602sysctl net.inet.siftr.logfile=/tmp/siftr.log 603.Sh SEE ALSO 604.Xr tcpdump 1 , 605.Xr tcp 4 , 606.Xr sysctl 8 , 607.Xr alq 9 , 608.Xr pfil 9 609.Sh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 610Development of this software was made possible in part by grants from the 611Cisco University Research Program Fund at Community Foundation Silicon Valley, 612and the FreeBSD Foundation. 613.Sh HISTORY 614.Nm 615first appeared in 616.Fx 7.4 617and 618.Fx 8.2 . 619.Pp 620.Nm 621was first released in 2007 by Lawrence Stewart and James Healy whilst working on 622the NewTCP research project at Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for 623Advanced Internet Architectures, Melbourne, Australia, which was made possible 624in part by a grant from the Cisco University Research Program Fund at Community 625Foundation Silicon Valley. 626More details are available at: 627.Pp 628http://caia.swin.edu.au/urp/newtcp/ 629.Pp 630Work on 631.Nm 632v1.2.x was sponsored by the FreeBSD Foundation as part of 633the 634.Qq Enhancing the FreeBSD TCP Implementation 635project 2008-2009. 636More details are available at: 637.Pp 638http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/ 639.Pp 640http://caia.swin.edu.au/freebsd/etcp09/ 641.Sh AUTHORS 642.An -nosplit 643.Nm 644was written by 645.An Lawrence Stewart Aq lstewart@FreeBSD.org 646and 647.An James Healy Aq jimmy@deefa.com . 648.Pp 649This manual page was written by 650.An Lawrence Stewart Aq lstewart@FreeBSD.org . 651.Sh BUGS 652Current known limitations and any relevant workarounds are outlined below: 653.Bl -dash 654.It 655The internal queue used to pass information between the threads of operation is 656currently unbounded. 657This allows 658.Nm 659to cope with bursty network traffic, but sustained high packet-per-second 660traffic can cause exhaustion of kernel memory if the processing thread cannot 661keep up with the packet rate. 662.It 663If using 664.Nm 665on a machine that is also running other modules utilising the 666.Xr pfil 9 667framework e.g. 668.Xr dummynet 4 , 669.Xr ipfw 8 , 670.Xr pf 4 Ns , 671the order in which you load the modules is important. 672You should kldload the other modules first, as this will ensure TCP packets 673undergo any necessary manipulations before 674.Nm 675.Qq sees 676and processes them. 677.It 678There is a known, harmless lock order reversal warning between the 679.Xr pfil 9 680mutex and tcbinfo TCP lock reported by 681.Xr witness 4 682when 683.Nm 684is enabled in a kernel compiled with 685.Xr witness 4 686support. 687.It 688There is no way to filter which TCP flows you wish to capture data for. 689Post processing is required to separate out data belonging to particular flows 690of interest. 691.It 692The module does not detect deletion of the log file path. 693New log messages will simply be lost if the log file being used by 694.Nm 695is deleted whilst the module is set to use the file. 696Switching to a new log file using the 697.Em net.inet.siftr.logfile 698variable will create the new file and allow log messages to begin being written 699to disk again. 700The new log file path must differ from the path to the deleted file. 701.It 702The hash table used within the code is sized to hold 65536 flows. This is not a 703hard limit, because chaining is used to handle collisions within the hash table 704structure. 705However, we suspect (based on analogies with other hash table performance data) 706that the hash table look up performance (and therefore the module's packet 707processing performance) will degrade in an exponential manner as the number of 708unique flows handled in a module enable/disable cycle approaches and surpasses 70965536. 710.It 711There is no garbage collection performed on the flow hash table. 712The only way currently to flush it is to disable 713.Nm . 714.It 715The PPL variable applies to packets that make it into the processing thread, 716not total packets received in the hook function. 717Packets are skipped before the PPL variable is applied, which means there may be 718a slight discrepancy in the triggering of log messages. 719For example, if PPL was set to 10, and the 8th packet since the last log message 720is skipped, the 11th packet will actually trigger the log message to be 721generated. 722This is discussed in greater depth in CAIA technical report 070824A. 723.It 724At the time of writing, there was no simple way to hook into the TCP layer 725to intercept packets. 726.Nm Ap s 727use of IP layer hook points means all IP 728traffic will be processed by the 729.Nm 730.Xr pfil 9 731hook function, which introduces minor, but nonetheless unnecessary packet delay 732and processing overhead on the system for non-TCP packets as well. 733Hooking in at the IP layer is also not ideal from the data gathering point of 734view. 735Packets traversing up the stack will be intercepted and cause a log message 736generation BEFORE they have been processed by the TCP layer, which means we 737cannot observe the cause-and-affect relationship between inbound events and the 738corresponding TCP control block as precisely as could be. 739Ideally, 740.Nm 741should intercept packets after they have been processed by the TCP layer i.e. 742intercept packets coming up the stack after they have been processed by 743tcp_input(), and intercept packets coming down the stack after they have been 744processed by tcp_output(). 745The current code still gives satisfactory granularity though, as inbound events 746tend to trigger outbound events, allowing the cause-and-effect to be observed 747indirectly by capturing the state on outbound events as well. 748.It 749The 750.Qq inflight bytes 751value logged by 752.Nm 753does not take into account bytes that have been 754.No SACK Ap ed 755by the receiving host. 756.It 757Packet hash generation does not currently work for IPv6 based TCP packets. 758.It 759Compressed notation is not used for IPv6 address representation. 760This consumes more bytes than is necessary in log output. 761.El 762