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Aleksandar Vidakovic
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

 

Introduction

This document provides a sample configuration for adjusting the TCP Maximim Segmet Size (MSS) on the ASR9000 routers.

TCP MSS adjustment is required when the network operators want to ensure that the TCP packets traversing the network will not exceed a predetermined size, thus preventing any unnecessary fragmentation of TCP packets on links with small MTU. Typically this may happen on links with the MTU of  1500 bytes, when the original IP/TCP packet is encapsulated into PPPoE, GRE or any other encapsulation.

Such modification of TCP MSS size doesn't cause any observable impact on TCP session throughput because the throughput of a TCP session is predominantly dictated by the TCP window size.

TCP basics

When TCP sessions establish, they signal 2 key parameters that dictate the transfer speeds of the session. That is the MSS, the maximum size of a TCP packet and the Window size. In TCP transmission, in its basic operation is to be acknowledged. So packet transferred, receive ACK and send the next packet. This is very slow especially on long end to end delays. Windowing allows for multiple packets to be sent and using a single ACK on that window. If one packet is lost of that window, the whole window is to be retransmitted. The larger the window size is, the better for thruput, but on unreliable links, this can have an adverse affect if large windows have to be retransmitted. Also large windows require larger receive buffers on the receiving side.

So the size of the packet is dictated by the MSS. The number of packets at that size to be sent without direct ACK on each packet is the window size.

 

What does MSS adjust do?

MSS is the value that a TCP client signals to a server indicating what the maximum size of a packet is that it can receive. Generally this value is derived from the client's local MTU size minus 40 bytes. These 40 are composed of 20 bytes for ip header and 20 bytes for the tcp header.

The segment size refers to the actual TCP payload carried.

If there are mtu changes in the network, which can easily be seen for instance with PPPoE, which adds 8 bytes of additional header, it could lead to a client with a local MTU of 1500, signaling a TCP mss of 1460, but actually requiring 1508 bytes on a transmission line (1460 + 20 ip + 20 tcp + 8 pppoe). This will cause some hops to do fragmentation.

The TCP MSS adjust feature intercepts a TCP syn packet and scans for the first option after the tcp header. If that option is the mss size, it can re-adjust the value to the desired value configured and update the checksum along with it.

Example scenario:

 

Prerequisites

Basic understanding of the ASR9000 architecture and IOS-XR operating system.

 

Restrictions

 

  • Feature is supported on Typhoon and Tomahawk line card generations.
  • Feature is supported on BNG subscriber interfaces, on L3 dot1q sub-interfaces and on GRE tunnels. (You can't configure the ipv4 mss enable on main interfaces).
  • Range of supported sizes for TCP MSS adjustment is from 1280 to 1535 bytes.
  • UDP packets are obviously not subject to MSS rewrites, only the TCP SYN packet is intercepted and rewritten.

 

Configure

The implementation of TCP MSS adjust on ASR9000 was dictated by two factors:

  1. minimal performance impact when applied to an interface
  2. performance doesn't change with deployment scale (i.e. number of interfaces where the feature is applied)

To meet these requirements, the chosen implementation requires two configuration steps:

  1. specify the TCP MSS size at the network processor (NP) level.
  2. specify the interfaces on which the configured TCP MSS size should be applied

One consequence of this approach is that all interfaces on a given NP must use the identical value for TCP MSS adjustments.

When enabled on an interface, TCP MSS feature is applies in both directions. i.e. adjustment is applied on ingress and egress packets. Feature is applied to both IPv4 and IPv6 even if only one of them is configured.

To determine which NP controls the interface in question, use the show controllers np ports exec command.

 

BNG specific

For BNG which first supported the mss-adjust capability an different configuration can be used:

subscriber
 pta tcp mss-adjust 1410
!

The value range for the BNG command is 1280-1536. The reason for that is that as you can see we only adjust for the higher order byte to save some space in the ucode variable.

 

Identifying fragmentation

Fragmentation can be identified by looking at the NP counters.

Note that for BNG and non BNG the commands and counters are different.

The reason for that is that Fragmentation is handled by NETIO for regular L3 interfaces. However BNG subscriber interfaces don't register with NETIO. This was done for scalability reasons since BNG subs don't require all the services that NETIO provides. For BNG subs, a "lite-weight" NETIO was designed called SINT (subscriber interface) that provides some basic L3 services such as access to the TCP stack, some basic ICMP support etc.

Verifying BNG subscriber fragmentation:

Looking at fragmentation at the SPP (the interupt switching path) level.

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:A9K-BNG#show spp node-counters | i frag
Sun Mar  8 11:08:17.501 EST
ipv4_frag
       Drop: Dont-fragment set:            3125 <<<< packets that have DF bit set
                     ipv4-frag:            3854  <<<<< packets fragmented

 

Verifying the NP counters with show controller np counters NP<x> location 0/<y>/CPU0
16  MDF_TX_LC_CPU                11037 107 <<<<<<<<<< 100pps to the LC CPU
17  MDF_TX_WIRE                  17423 201    <<<<< 200 packets to the wire (2 frags)
21  MDF_TX_FABRIC                24798 299 <<<<<<<<<<<200 pps injected from the fab
41  PARSE_INJ_RECEIVE_CNT        17079 201 <<<<<< 200pps injected
45  PARSE_ENET_RECEIVE_CNT       8969  101 <<<<received on wire from the tester
416  RSV_PUNT_IP_MTU_EXCEEDED    9615  99 <<<<<100pps requiring frag

1048  PPPOE_FRAG_NEEDED_PUNT     9615  99  <<<<<on pppoe sessions

 

Verifying regular L3 fragmentation:

with the same command show controller np counters NP<x> loc 0/<y>/cpu0 the following can be observed for fragmentation:

  16  MDF_TX_LC_CPU              718    106 << sent to the LC CPU for frag
  33  PARSE_FAB_RECEIVE_CNT      681    100 << packets received from the fabric
 416  RSV_PUNT_IP_MTU_EXCEEDED   677    100 << packets needing punt because of MTU
 842  IPV4_FRAG_NEEDED_PUNT      677    100 << packets punted for FRAG reasons


Note that in both cases the DF bit is NOT assessed in the hardware, this is handled by the controlling agent, whether it be SPP for BNG subs or NETIO for regular L3 interfaces.

 

Configuration Example

In this example the TCP MSS adjust is applied to interface Bundle-Ether48.10.

Step 1: Determine the NP on which the TCP MSS adjust is to be configured:

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:av-asr9001#sh bundle bundle-ether 48
<snip>
  Port                  Device           State        Port ID         B/W, kbps
  --------------------  ---------------  -----------  --------------  ----------
  Gi0/0/1/6             Local            Active       0x8000, 0x0003     1000000
      Link is Active
  Gi0/0/1/7             Local            Active       0x8000, 0x0004     1000000
      Link is Active

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:av-asr9001#show controllers np ports all location 0/0/CPU0

                Node: 0/0/CPU0:
----------------------------------------------------------------

NP Bridge Fia                       Ports
-- ------ --- ---------------------------------------------------
0  0      0
0  0      0   TenGigE0/0/2/0, TenGigE0/0/2/1
1  1      1   GigabitEthernet0/0/1/0 - GigabitEthernet0/0/1/19
1  1      1   TenGigE0/0/2/2, TenGigE0/0/2/3
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:av-asr9001#

 

Step 2: Configure the desired TCP MSS value and activate the feature on the interface Bundle-Ether48.10.

hw-module location 0/0/CPU0 tcp-mss-adjust np 1 value 1300
!
interface Bundle-Ether48.10
 ipv4 address 4.8.10.4 255.255.255.0
 ipv4 tcp-mss-adjust enable
 encapsulation dot1q 10

 

 

Verify

 

To verify that the feature is enabled on a selected interface, check the microcode interface descriptor block (uidb) setting:

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:asr9001#sh uidb data location 0/0/CPU0 Bundle-Ether 48.10 ing-extension | i TCP
  TCP MSS ADJ Enable               0x1
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:asr9001#sh uidb data location 0/0/CPU0 Bundle-Ether 48.10 extension | i TCP
  TCP MSS ADJ Enable               0x1

 

You can verify the rewrite with a simple TCP session on an IOS router connected to the device that is doing the MSS rewrite.

Enable debug tcp transactions and packet.

You'll see:

Feb  6 14:17:26.112: tcp0: I LISTEN 54.1.1.2:1234 81.1.1.2:23 seq 0
        OPTS 4 SYN  WIN 0
Feb  6 14:17:26.112: TCP0: state was LISTEN -> SYNRCVD [23 -> 54.1.1.2(1234)]
Feb  6 14:17:26.112: TCP0: tcb D333A2EC connection to 54.1.1.2:1234, received MSS 1300, MSS is 516

54.1.1.2 is the source and 81.1.1.2 is the destination. The debug is taken from 81.1.1.2

You can see that the decoded MSS value received is 1300 as per configuration on the asr9000 which sits in between client and destination. Our local MSS value is 516 which we advertise. This is merely to illustrate a possible verification of the MSS rewrite rather then focusing on the actual values.

 

Additional Information

It works similar in case of GRE Tunnel:

  • enable under the tunnel-ip the command 'ipv4 tcp-mss-adjust enable'
  • locate the exit interface the tunnel uses ((whether it be before -> traffic going into the tunnel, or after decap -> coming out of the tunnel) and then apply the corresponding 'hw-module location <> tcp-mss-adjust np X value <number>'

Related Information

Comments
Salja
Level 1
Level 1

Hi Aleksandar,

 

thank you very much for such a nice explanation.

Is it possible to configure TCP MSS on the ASR 9001-S router?

I am planning to use this feature on the interface on the A9K-MPA-20x1GE card.

Is there any restriction for that on this card?

 

Thank you

Ismir

 

xthuijs
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Yup it is, I think you had the same question on the main forum right? I answered it there with a bit more detail.

cheers

xander

Hello Xander,
   Based off your statement regarding the requirements for performance impacts, I assume the impact is small.   Do you have any info on what that impact is?  I have an environment where the feature may help for a subset of traffic, but has high throughput requirements.

 

Thanks,
Alex

xthuijs
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

it is nearly unmeasurable alex.

the rewrite only applies to the syn non ack packets, and that eval is 2 cycles.

the rewrite is 4 cycles (update of mss and update of checksum), and that is nearly 0.001% pps perf impact if not less, considering there is only one of those per flow.

in short, you can pretty much enable this without any "fear".

cheers

xander

Ming Keat Pang
Level 1
Level 1

Aleksandar

Thanks for your post and it's really helpful.

I got a queries if these are 2 interfaces fall under a same NP but i need to configure a different value for both.

Any advice to configure?

Thanks in advance.

MK

Aleksandar Vidakovic
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi MK,

TCP MSS is configured per NP. If both interfaces are on the NP you would have to pick the lower value and apply that.

TCP session throughput is much more dependent on the TCP window size than on the MSS. By configuring the lower of the two values on both interfaces, end users won't observe any service degradation.

Aleksandar

pcamps
Community Member

Hi Xander,

Thanks very much for the article - very helpful. It's difficult to find "official" documentation about this subject.

I've got a further question about this setup if you don't mind

In the 6500 platform (SUP720) the same feature hits an mls rate limit (mls rate-limit unicast acl). Are you aware if for the ASR9001 (latest OS) there's any rate limit that this feature would use? Or is it "just adjust as many as you see, don't drop anything" SYN (non-ACK) packets?

Thank you!

xthuijs
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi there!

you can consider this to be "official" :) it is written by engineers for engineers. It may not have the fancy formatting, it sure does carry its intrinsic value :)

the way we did this on the NPU is completely in HW. Surely every "check" you put in ucode costs a cycle, and every cycle consumed slows down the pps performance, but in this case the check is so simple with a is config set? and is packet tcp syn then adjust mss and update checksum.

the 2 checks to classify are nearly impossible to measure in terms of processing latency since they are lumped with other activities happening a the same time and performed in what we call IRAM (internal ram to the chip, not requiring external slower lookups).

the mss update and checksum adjust take a few more cycles, but then only done for tcp syn, and still negligible in the larger scheme of things. Say if your tomahawk does 250Mpps racetrack, doing this brings you down, IF all packets were tcp syn (yeah sure) to 248Mpps. something along those lines.

The MSS rewrite doesn't require punt policers etc as everything is done in HW.

Because we do it in HW we had some constraints for mem and processing conservation, which means that we can only adjust the byte value of the MSS which is a word. What that means is the values you can choose for MSS is not 0-16k but limited to a range value defined by a byte boundary.

I could live with that :)

cheers!

xander

adorins
Level 1
Level 1

Hi,

tcp mss adjust command example shows this is two-step process - at first I must configure mss at NP level and then under a particular subinterface.

I need to adjust mss only on one subinterface which belongs to some NP. Question - which step actually starts to adjust a mss? Do I understand correctly that first command

hw-module location 0/0/CPU0 tcp-mss-adjust np 1 value 1300

doesn't affects anything but just sets a mss size "template" for particular NP? And a real mss adjustment starts only if I configure it on some subinterface?

Thanks

Aleksandar Vidakovic
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi Agris,

your understanding is correct.

regards,

Aleksandar

xthuijs
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

the reason for this 2 step approach is that the hw-module mss command programs the desired MSS value into the NPU's IRAM (internal to chip ram, which is fast, but limited in size).

so instead of having a value on a per interface bases, which would not fit in IRAM, making it slower, it also requires a lot of memory externally to the npu (with little added value), we decided to use a byte in IRAM for the desired npu mss value.

Then on a per interface bases we set a flag whether it should run the check and adjust. So there is flexibility on per interface bases, but the value is the same for all interfaces enabled for mss adjust tied to the same npu.

just wanted to give you some rationale why we did it this way; trade of between speed and flex :)

cheers!

xander

pcamps
Community Member

Hi Xander!

Thanks very much! No more performance hits and no more rate-limits to worry about!

Thanks!!

MarlonDeMoya
Level 1
Level 1

Hello Xander,

In case i want to enable the MSS adjustment on a GRE tunnel, the procedure would be to configure the MSS on all the NP that the tunnel could, potentially, use to reach the tunnel destination?

Thanks,

Marlon

xthuijs
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

correct marlon! the mss runs on a per npu bases, so you need to enable it on the tunnel and also define the value of the mss on the npu's that possibly could receive the tunnel traffic (whether it be before -> traffic going into the tunnel, or after decap -> coming out of the tunnel).

cheers

xander

sandeeya
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hello Xander,

As it is a two step approach ,now I have one query like if we enable this CLI on Interface only  without setting any MSS value at NPU than will it work .And if it works then what mss value would that take by default.

thanks

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