Optimize cell-ewma circuit priority algorithm.

There are two big changes here:
  - We store active circuits in a priority queue for each or_conn,
    rather than doing a linear search over all the active circuits
    before we send each cell.
  - Rather than multiplying every circuit's cell-ewma by a decay
    factor every time we send a cell (thus normalizing the value of a
    current cell to 1.0 and a past cell to alpha^t), we instead
    only scale down the cell-ewma every tick (ten seconds atm),
    normalizing so that a cell sent at the start of the tick has
    value 1.0).

src/or/circuitlist.c

@@ -386,8 +386,10 @@ init_circuit_base(circuit_t *circ)
   circ->deliver_window = CIRCWINDOW_START;
 
   /* Initialize the cell_ewma_t structure */
-  circ->n_cell_ewma.last_cell_time = circ->highres_created;
+  circ->n_cell_ewma.last_adjusted_tick = cell_ewma_get_tick();
   circ->n_cell_ewma.cell_count = 0.0;
+  circ->n_cell_ewma.heap_index = -1;
+  circ->n_cell_ewma.is_for_p_conn = 0;
 
   circuit_add(circ);
 }
@@ -438,11 +440,13 @@ or_circuit_new(circid_t p_circ_id, or_connection_t *p_conn)
 
   /* Initialize the cell_ewma_t structure */
 
-  /* Fetch the timeval that init_circuit_base filled in. */
-  circ->p_cell_ewma.last_cell_time = TO_CIRCUIT(circ)->highres_created;
-
   /* Initialize the cell counts to 0 */
   circ->p_cell_ewma.cell_count = 0.0;
+  circ->p_cell_ewma.last_adjusted_tick = cell_ewma_get_tick();
+  circ->p_cell_ewma.is_for_p_conn = 1;
+
+  /* It's not in any heap yet. */
+  circ->p_cell_ewma.heap_index = -1;
 
   return circ;
 }

src/or/config.c

@@ -1379,6 +1379,9 @@ options_act(or_options_t *old_options)
   if (accounting_is_enabled(options))
     configure_accounting(time(NULL));
 
+  /* Change the cell EWMA settings */
+  cell_ewma_set_scale_factor(options);
+
   /* Check for transitions that need action. */
   if (old_options) {
     if (options->UseEntryGuards && !old_options->UseEntryGuards) {

src/or/connection.c

@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ or_connection_new(int socket_family)
   or_conn->timestamp_last_added_nonpadding = time(NULL);
   or_conn->next_circ_id = crypto_rand_int(1<<15);
 
+  or_conn->active_circuit_pqueue = smartlist_create();
+  or_conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated = cell_ewma_get_tick();
+
   return or_conn;
 }
 
@@ -375,6 +378,7 @@ _connection_free(connection_t *conn)
     or_conn->tls = NULL;
     or_handshake_state_free(or_conn->handshake_state);
     or_conn->handshake_state = NULL;
+    smartlist_free(or_conn->active_circuit_pqueue);
     tor_free(or_conn->nickname);
   }
   if (CONN_IS_EDGE(conn)) {

src/or/connection_or.c

@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ connection_or_clear_identity_map(void)
     }
   });
 
-
   digestmap_free(orconn_identity_map, NULL);
   orconn_identity_map = NULL;
 }

src/or/or.h

@@ -1075,6 +1075,17 @@ typedef struct or_connection_t {
    * free up on this connection's outbuf.  Every time we pull cells from a
    * circuit, we advance this pointer to the next circuit in the ring. */
   struct circuit_t *active_circuits;
+  /** Priority queue of cell_ewma_t for circuits with queued cells waiting for
+   * room to free up on this connection's outbuf.  Kept in heap order
+   * according to EWMA.
+   *
+   * This is redundant with active_circuits; if we ever decide only to use the
+   * cell_ewma algorithm for choosing circuits, we can remove active_circuits.
+   */
+  smartlist_t *active_circuit_pqueue;
+  /** The tick on which the ciell_ewma_t's in active_circuit_pqueue last had
+   * their ewma values rescaled. */
+  unsigned active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated;
   struct or_connection_t *next_with_same_id; /**< Next connection with same
                                               * identity digest as this one. */
 } or_connection_t;
@@ -1994,16 +2005,25 @@ typedef struct {
 
 /**
  * The cell_ewma_t structure keeps track of how many cells a circuit has
- * transferred recently.  It keeps an EWMA (exponentially weighted
- * moving average) of the number of cells flushed in
- * connection_or_flush_from_first_active_circuit().
+ * transferred recently.  It keeps an EWMA (exponentially weighted moving
+ * average) of the number of cells flushed from the circuit queue onto a
+ * connection in connection_or_flush_from_first_active_circuit().
  */
-
 typedef struct {
-    /** The last time a cell was flushed from this circuit. */
-    struct timeval last_cell_time;
-    /** The EWMA of the cell count. */
-    double cell_count;
+  /** The last 'tick' at which we recalibrated cell_count.
+   *
+   * A cell sent at exactly the start of this tick has weight 1.0. Cells sent
+   * since the start of this tick have weight greater than 1.0; ones sent
+   * earlier have less weight. */
+  unsigned last_adjusted_tick;
+  /** The EWMA of the cell count. */
+  double cell_count;
+  /** True iff this is a the cell count for a circuit's previous
+   * connection. */
+  unsigned int is_for_p_conn : 1;
+  /** The position of the circuit within the or connection's priority
+   * queue. */
+  int heap_index;
 } cell_ewma_t;
 
 #define ORIGIN_CIRCUIT_MAGIC 0x35315243u
@@ -2097,7 +2117,8 @@ typedef struct circuit_t {
   uint64_t dirreq_id;
 
   /** The EWMA count for the number of cells flushed from the
-   * n_conn_cells queue. */
+   * n_conn_cells queue.  Used to determine which circuit to flush from next.
+   */
   cell_ewma_t n_cell_ewma;
 } circuit_t;
 
@@ -4469,6 +4490,8 @@ int append_address_to_payload(char *payload_out, const tor_addr_t *addr);
 const char *decode_address_from_payload(tor_addr_t *addr_out,
                                         const char *payload,
                                         int payload_len);
+unsigned cell_ewma_get_tick(void);
+void cell_ewma_set_scale_factor(or_options_t *options);
 
 /********************************* rephist.c ***************************/
 

src/or/relay.c

@@ -1752,6 +1752,194 @@ prev_circ_on_conn_p(circuit_t *circ, or_connection_t *conn)
   }
 }
 
+/** Helper for sorting cell_ewma_t values in their priority queue. */
+static int
+compare_cell_ewma_counts(const void *p1, const void *p2)
+{
+  const cell_ewma_t *e1=p1, *e2=p2;
+  if (e1->cell_count < e2->cell_count)
+    return -1;
+  else if (e1->cell_count > e2->cell_count)
+    return 1;
+  else
+    return 0;
+}
+
+/** Given a cell_ewma_t, return a pointer to the circuit containing it. */
+static circuit_t *
+cell_ewma_to_circuit(cell_ewma_t *ewma)
+{
+  if (ewma->is_for_p_conn) {
+    /* This is an or_circuit_t's p_cell_ewma. */
+    or_circuit_t *orcirc = SUBTYPE_P(ewma, or_circuit_t, p_cell_ewma);
+    return TO_CIRCUIT(orcirc);
+  } else {
+    /* This is some circuit's n_cell_ewma. */
+    return SUBTYPE_P(ewma, circuit_t, n_cell_ewma);
+  }
+}
+
+/* ==== Functions for scaling cell_ewma_t ====
+
+   When choosing which cells to relay first, we favor circuits that have been
+   quiet recently.  This gives better latency on connections that aren't
+   pushing lots of data, and makes the network feel more interactive.
+
+   Conceptually, we take an exponentially weighted mean average of the number
+   of cells a circuit has sent, and allow active circuits (those with cells to
+   relay) to send cells in order of their exponentially-weighted mean average
+   (EWMA) cell count.  [That is, a cell sent N seconds ago 'counts' F^N times
+   as much as a cell sent now, for 0<F<1.0.]
+
+   If 'double' had infinite precision, we could do this simply by counting a
+   cell sent at startup as having weight 1.0, and a cell sent N seconds later
+   as having weight F^-N.  This way, we would never need to re-scale
+   any already-sent cells.
+
+   To prevent double from overflowing, we could count a cell sent now as
+   having weight 1.0 and a cell sent N seconds ago as having weight F^N.
+   This, however, would mean we'd need to re-scale *ALL* old circuits every
+   time we wanted to send a cell.
+
+   So as a compromise, we divide time into 'ticks' (currently, 10-second
+   increments) and say that a cell sent at the start of a current tick is
+   worth 1.0, a cell sent N seconds before the start of the current tick is
+   worth F^N, and a cell sent N seconds after the start of the current tick is
+   worth F^-N.  This way we don't overflow, and we don't need to constantly
+   rescale.
+ */
+
+/** How long does a tick last (seconds)? */
+#define EWMA_TICK_LEN 10
+
+/** The default per-tick scale factor, if it hasn't been overridden by a
+ * consensus or a configuration setting. */
+#define EWMA_DEFAULT_SCALE_FACTOR 0.9
+
+/** Given a timeval 'now', compute the cell_ewma tick in which it occurs
+ * and the fraction of the tick that has elapsed before 
+ *
+ * These tick values are not meant to be shared between Tor instances, or used
+ * for other purposes. */
+static unsigned
+cell_ewma_tick_from_timeval(const struct timeval *now,
+                            double *remainder_out)
+{
+  unsigned res = now->tv_sec / EWMA_TICK_LEN;
+  /* rem */
+  double rem = (now->tv_sec % EWMA_TICK_LEN) +
+    ((double)(now->tv_usec)) / 1.0e6;
+  *remainder_out = rem / EWMA_TICK_LEN;
+  return res;
+}
+
+/** Compute and return the current cell_ewma tick. */
+unsigned
+cell_ewma_get_tick(void)
+{
+  return ((unsigned)approx_time() / EWMA_TICK_LEN);
+}
+
+/** The per-tick scale factor to be used when computing cell-count EWMA
+ * values.  (A cell sent N ticks before the start of the current tick
+ * has value ewma_scale_factor ** N.)
+ *
+ * If ewma_scale_factor is <= 0, the EWMA algorithm is disabled.
+ */
+static double ewma_scale_factor = EWMA_DEFAULT_SCALE_FACTOR;
+
+/** Adjust the global cell scale factor based on <b>options</b> */
+void
+cell_ewma_set_scale_factor(or_options_t *options)
+{
+  double f;
+  if (options->EWMAInterval > 0.0001) {
+    f = pow(options->EWMASignificance,
+            EWMA_TICK_LEN / options->EWMAInterval);
+  } else {
+    f = EWMA_DEFAULT_SCALE_FACTOR;
+  }
+
+  ewma_scale_factor = f;
+}
+
+/** Return the multiplier necessary to convert the value of a cell sent in
+ * 'from_tick' to one sent in 'to_tick'. */
+static INLINE double
+get_scale_factor(unsigned from_tick, unsigned to_tick)
+{
+  /* This math can wrap around, but that's okay: unsigned overflow is
+     well-defined */
+  int diff = (int)(to_tick - from_tick);
+  return pow(ewma_scale_factor, diff);
+}
+
+/** Adjust the cell count of <b>ewma</b> so that it is scaled with respect to
+ * <b>cur_tick</b> */
+static void
+scale_single_cell_ewma(cell_ewma_t *ewma, unsigned cur_tick)
+{
+  double factor = get_scale_factor(ewma->last_adjusted_tick, cur_tick);
+  ewma->cell_count *= factor;
+  ewma->last_adjusted_tick = cur_tick;
+}
+
+/** Adjust the cell count of every active circuit on <b>conn</b> so
+ * that they are scaled with respect to <b>cur_tick</b> */
+static void
+scale_active_circuits(or_connection_t *conn, unsigned cur_tick)
+{
+
+  double factor = get_scale_factor(
+              conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated,
+              cur_tick);
+  /** Ordinarily it isn't okay to change the value of an element in a heap,
+   * but it's okay here, since we are preserving the order. */
+  SMARTLIST_FOREACH(conn->active_circuit_pqueue, cell_ewma_t *, e, {
+      tor_assert(e->last_adjusted_tick ==
+                 conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated);
+      e->cell_count *= factor;
+      e->last_adjusted_tick = cur_tick;
+  });
+  conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated = cur_tick;
+}
+
+/** Rescale <b>ewma</b> to the same scale as <b>conn</b>, and add it to
+ * <b>conn</b>'s priority queue of active circuits */
+static void
+add_cell_ewma_to_conn(or_connection_t *conn, cell_ewma_t *ewma)
+{
+  tor_assert(ewma->heap_index == -1);
+  scale_single_cell_ewma(ewma,
+                         conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated);
+
+  smartlist_pqueue_add(conn->active_circuit_pqueue,
+                       compare_cell_ewma_counts,
+                       STRUCT_OFFSET(cell_ewma_t, heap_index),
+                       ewma);
+}
+
+/** Remove <b>ewma</b> from <b>conn</b>'s priority queue of active circuits */
+static void
+remove_cell_ewma_from_conn(or_connection_t *conn, cell_ewma_t *ewma)
+{
+  tor_assert(ewma->heap_index != -1);
+  smartlist_pqueue_remove(conn->active_circuit_pqueue,
+                          compare_cell_ewma_counts,
+                          STRUCT_OFFSET(cell_ewma_t, heap_index),
+                          ewma);
+}
+
+/** Remove and return the first cell_ewma_t from conn's priority queue of
+ * active circuits.  Requires that the priority queue is nonempty. */
+static cell_ewma_t *
+pop_first_cell_ewma_from_conn(or_connection_t *conn)
+{
+  return smartlist_pqueue_pop(conn->active_circuit_pqueue,
+                              compare_cell_ewma_counts,
+                              STRUCT_OFFSET(cell_ewma_t, heap_index));
+}
+
 /** Add <b>circ</b> to the list of circuits with pending cells on
  * <b>conn</b>.  No effect if <b>circ</b> is already linked. */
 void
@@ -1765,6 +1953,8 @@ make_circuit_active_on_conn(circuit_t *circ, or_connection_t *conn)
     return;
   }
 
+  assert_active_circuits_ok_paranoid(conn);
+
   if (! conn->active_circuits) {
     conn->active_circuits = circ;
     *prevp = *nextp = circ;
@@ -1776,6 +1966,15 @@ make_circuit_active_on_conn(circuit_t *circ, or_connection_t *conn)
     *prev_circ_on_conn_p(head, conn) = circ;
     *prevp = old_tail;
   }
+
+  if (circ->n_conn == conn) {
+    add_cell_ewma_to_conn(conn, &circ->n_cell_ewma);
+  } else {
+    or_circuit_t *orcirc = TO_OR_CIRCUIT(circ);
+    tor_assert(conn == orcirc->p_conn);
+    add_cell_ewma_to_conn(conn, &orcirc->p_cell_ewma);
+  }
+
   assert_active_circuits_ok_paranoid(conn);
 }
 
@@ -1793,6 +1992,8 @@ make_circuit_inactive_on_conn(circuit_t *circ, or_connection_t *conn)
     return;
   }
 
+  assert_active_circuits_ok_paranoid(conn);
+
   tor_assert(next && prev);
   tor_assert(*prev_circ_on_conn_p(next, conn) == circ);
   tor_assert(*next_circ_on_conn_p(prev, conn) == circ);
@@ -1806,6 +2007,15 @@ make_circuit_inactive_on_conn(circuit_t *circ, or_connection_t *conn)
       conn->active_circuits = next;
   }
   *prevp = *nextp = NULL;
+
+  if (circ->n_conn == conn) {
+    remove_cell_ewma_from_conn(conn, &circ->n_cell_ewma);
+  } else {
+    or_circuit_t *orcirc = TO_OR_CIRCUIT(circ);
+    tor_assert(conn == orcirc->p_conn);
+    remove_cell_ewma_from_conn(conn, &orcirc->p_cell_ewma);
+  }
+
   assert_active_circuits_ok_paranoid(conn);
 }
 
@@ -1825,6 +2035,10 @@ connection_or_unlink_all_active_circs(or_connection_t *orconn)
     cur = next;
   } while (cur != head);
   orconn->active_circuits = NULL;
+
+  SMARTLIST_FOREACH(orconn->active_circuit_pqueue, cell_ewma_t *, e,
+                    e->heap_index = -1);
+  smartlist_clear(orconn->active_circuit_pqueue);
 }
 
 /** Block (if <b>block</b> is true) or unblock (if <b>block</b> is false)
@@ -1884,92 +2098,27 @@ connection_or_flush_from_first_active_circuit(or_connection_t *conn, int max,
 
   /* The EWMA cell counter for the circuit we're flushing. */
   cell_ewma_t *cell_ewma = NULL;
-
-  /* The global cell EWMA parameters.  The algorithm is parameterized by
-   * two values (type double):
-   *
-   * "significance" (between 0 and 1) and "interval"
-   *
-   * The cell count is weighted so that the most recent "interval"
-   * seconds will account for "significance" of the weight.
-   *
-   * If "interval" is set to 0, it disables the algorithm, and the old
-   * algorithm (round-robin) is used.
-   *
-   * These parameters should really be set by the consensus, but can be
-   * overridden by the torrc (in which case the options values will be
-   * >= 0.0).
-   */
-  static double cell_ewma_significance = 0.9;
-  static double cell_ewma_interval = 10.0;
-
-  double significance_override = get_options()->EWMASignificance;
-  double interval_override = get_options()->EWMAInterval;
-  if (significance_override >= 0.0) {
-    cell_ewma_significance = significance_override;
-  }
-  if (interval_override >= 0.0) {
-    cell_ewma_interval = interval_override;
-  }
+  double ewma_increment = -1;
 
   circ = conn->active_circuits;
   if (!circ) return 0;
   assert_active_circuits_ok_paranoid(conn);
 
   /* See if we're doing the ewma circuit selection algorithm. */
-  if (cell_ewma_interval > 0.0) {
-    /* Is there another circuit we might like better? */
-    circuit_t *circ_iter, *circ_start;
-    circuit_t *circ_min_cell_count = NULL;
-    double min_cell_count = 0.0;
+  if (ewma_scale_factor > 0.0) {
+    unsigned tick;
+    double fractional_tick;
     tor_gettimeofday_cached(&now_hires);
+    tick = cell_ewma_tick_from_timeval(&now_hires, &fractional_tick);
 
-    /* Start with circ, and go around the circular linked list */
-    circ_start = circ_iter = circ;
-    do {
-      double delta_t;
-
-      /* Find the appropriate EWMA cell counter to use. */
-      if (circ_iter->n_conn == conn) {
-        cell_ewma = &(circ_iter->n_cell_ewma);
-      } else {
-        cell_ewma = &(TO_OR_CIRCUIT(circ_iter)->p_cell_ewma);
-      }
-
-      /* Update the EWMA cell counter to account for the passage of time. */
-      delta_t = (double)(now_hires.tv_sec -
-                         cell_ewma->last_cell_time.tv_sec);
-      delta_t += ((double)(now_hires.tv_usec -
-                           cell_ewma->last_cell_time.tv_usec)) / 1000000.0;
-
-      if (delta_t > 0.0) {
-        cell_ewma->cell_count *=
-          pow(cell_ewma_significance, delta_t / cell_ewma_interval);
-        //printf("cc: %f ", cell_ewma->cell_count);
-      }
-      cell_ewma->last_cell_time = now_hires;
-
-      /* Now keep track of the lowest cell count we've seen. */
-      if (circ_min_cell_count == NULL ||
-          cell_ewma->cell_count < min_cell_count) {
-        min_cell_count = cell_ewma->cell_count;
-        circ_min_cell_count = circ_iter;
-      }
-
-      circ_iter = *next_circ_on_conn_p(circ_iter, conn);
-    } while (circ_iter != circ_start);
+    if (tick != conn->active_circuit_pqueue_last_recalibrated) {
+      scale_active_circuits(conn, tick);
+    }
 
-    /* OK, we've gone all the way around.  Let's use the circ with the
-     * lowest (recent) cell count. */
-    circ = circ_min_cell_count;
+    ewma_increment = pow(ewma_scale_factor, -fractional_tick);
 
-    /* Now set the appropriate EWMA cell counter to use below to add the
-     * cells we actually send. */
-    if (circ_min_cell_count->n_conn == conn) {
-      cell_ewma = &(circ_min_cell_count->n_cell_ewma);
-    } else {
-      cell_ewma = &(TO_OR_CIRCUIT(circ_min_cell_count)->p_cell_ewma);
-    }
+    cell_ewma = smartlist_get(conn->active_circuit_pqueue, 0);
+    circ = cell_ewma_to_circuit(cell_ewma);
   }
 
   if (circ->n_conn == conn) {
@@ -2028,7 +2177,14 @@ connection_or_flush_from_first_active_circuit(or_connection_t *conn, int max,
     packed_cell_free_unchecked(cell);
     ++n_flushed;
     if (cell_ewma) {
-      cell_ewma->cell_count += 1.0;
+      cell_ewma_t *tmp;
+      cell_ewma->cell_count += ewma_increment;
+      /* We pop and re-add the cell_ewma_t here, not above, since we need to
+       * re-add it immediately to keep the priority queue consistent with
+       * the linked-list implementation */
+      tmp = pop_first_cell_ewma_from_conn(conn);
+      tor_assert(tmp == cell_ewma);
+      add_cell_ewma_to_conn(conn, cell_ewma);
     }
     if (circ != conn->active_circuits) {
       /* If this happens, the current circuit just got made inactive by
@@ -2049,7 +2205,7 @@ connection_or_flush_from_first_active_circuit(or_connection_t *conn, int max,
   if (streams_blocked && queue->n <= CELL_QUEUE_LOWWATER_SIZE)
     set_streams_blocked_on_circ(circ, conn, 0); /* unblock streams */
 
-  /* Did we just ran out of cells on this queue? */
+  /* Did we just ran out of cells on this circuit's queue? */
   if (queue->n == 0) {
     log_debug(LD_GENERAL, "Made a circuit inactive.");
     make_circuit_inactive_on_conn(circ, conn);
@@ -2172,16 +2328,31 @@ assert_active_circuits_ok(or_connection_t *orconn)
 {
   circuit_t *head = orconn->active_circuits;
   circuit_t *cur = head;
+  int n = 0;
   if (! head)
     return;
   do {
     circuit_t *next = *next_circ_on_conn_p(cur, orconn);
     circuit_t *prev = *prev_circ_on_conn_p(cur, orconn);
+    cell_ewma_t *ewma;
     tor_assert(next);
     tor_assert(prev);
     tor_assert(*next_circ_on_conn_p(prev, orconn) == cur);
     tor_assert(*prev_circ_on_conn_p(next, orconn) == cur);
+    if (orconn == cur->n_conn) {
+      ewma = &cur->n_cell_ewma;
+      tor_assert(!ewma->is_for_p_conn);
+    } else {
+      ewma = &TO_OR_CIRCUIT(cur)->p_cell_ewma;
+      tor_assert(ewma->is_for_p_conn);
+    }
+    tor_assert(ewma->heap_index != -1);
+    tor_assert(ewma == smartlist_get(orconn->active_circuit_pqueue,
+                                     ewma->heap_index));
+    n++;
     cur = next;
   } while (cur != head);
+
+  tor_assert(n == smartlist_len(orconn->active_circuit_pqueue));
 }