33.4. pfifo_fast queue disc

33.4.1. Model Description

PfifoFastQueueDisc behaves like pfifo_fast, which is the default queue disc enabled on Linux systems (init systems such as systemd may override such default setting). Packets are enqueued in three priority bands (implemented as FIFO droptail queues) based on their priority (users can read Use of Send() vs. SendTo() for details on how to set packet priority). The four least significant bits of the priority are used to determine the selected band according to the following table:

Priority & 0xf

Band

0

1

1

2

2

2

3

2

4

1

5

2

6

0

7

0

8

1

9

1

10

1

11

1

12

1

13

1

14

1

15

1

The system behaves similar to three ns3::DropTail queues operating together, in which packets from higher priority bands are always dequeued before a packet from a lower priority band is dequeued.

The queue disc capacity, i.e., the maximum number of packets that can be enqueued in the queue disc, is set through the MaxSize attribute, which plays the same role as txqueuelen in Linux. If no internal queue is provided, three DropTail queues having each a capacity equal to MaxSize are created by default. User is allowed to provide queues, but they must be three, operate in packet mode and each have a capacity not less than MaxSize. No packet filter can be added to a PfifoFastQueueDisc.

33.4.1.1. Attributes

The PfifoFastQueueDisc class holds a single attribute:

  • MaxSize: The maximum number of packets accepted by the queue disc. The default value is 1000.

33.4.1.2. Examples

Various examples located in src/traffic-control/examples (e.g., codel-vs-pfifo-asymmetric.cc) shows how to configure and install a PfifoFastQueueDisc on internet nodes.

33.4.2. Validation

The pfifo_fast model is tested using PfifoFastQueueDiscTestSuite class defined in src/test/ns3tc/pfifo-fast-queue-disc-test-suite.cc. The suite includes 4 test cases:

  • Test 1: The first test checks whether IPv4 packets are enqueued in the correct band based on the TOS byte

  • Test 2: The second test checks whether IPv4 packets are enqueued in the correct band based on the TOS byte

  • Test 3: The third test checks that the queue disc cannot enqueue more packets than its limit

  • Test 4: The fourth test checks that packets that the filters have not been able to classify are enqueued into the default band of 1