Socket Buffers, Batching, and Packet Timestamps

Status Draft outlineSection Networking and I/O

Socket queues absorb bursts and decouple producers from consumers, but every queued packet acquires residence time and can eventually be dropped.

Planned model

Move packets through NIC and socket queues while adjusting buffer sizes, application batch size, and timestamp location. Plot drops, syscalls, and latency.

Questions

• Which queue does a socket-buffer setting actually change?
• When does batching improve throughput but harm first-packet latency?
• What event does each software or hardware timestamp represent?

Exercise

Select buffer and batch policies for a bursty receiver with a strict stale-data deadline.