crypto/tls: implement dynamic record sizing

Currently, if a client of crypto/tls (e.g., net/http, http2) calls
tls.Conn.Write with a 33KB buffer, that ends up writing three TLS
records: 16KB, 16KB, and 1KB. Slow clients (such as 2G phones) must
download the first 16KB record before they can decrypt the first byte.
To improve latency, it's better to send smaller TLS records. However,
sending smaller records adds overhead (more overhead bytes and more
crypto calls), which slightly hurts throughput.

A simple heuristic, implemented in this change, is to send small
records for new connections, then boost to large records after the
first 1MB has been written on the connection.

Fixes #14376

Change-Id: Ice0f6279325be6775aa55351809f88e07dd700cd
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/19591
TryBot-Result: Gobot Gobot <gobot@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Tom Bergan <tombergan@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Adam Langley <agl@golang.org>

common.go

@@ -349,6 +349,12 @@ type Config struct {
 	// be used.
 	CurvePreferences []CurveID
 
+	// DynamicRecordSizingDisabled disables adaptive sizing of TLS records.
+	// When true, the largest possible TLS record size is always used. When
+	// false, the size of TLS records may be adjusted in an attempt to
+	// improve latency.
+	DynamicRecordSizingDisabled bool
+
 	serverInitOnce sync.Once // guards calling (*Config).serverInit
 
 	// mutex protects sessionTicketKeys

conn.go

@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ type Conn struct {
 	input    *block       // application data waiting to be read
 	hand     bytes.Buffer // handshake data waiting to be read
 
+	// bytesSent counts the number of bytes of application data that have
+	// been sent.
+	bytesSent int64
+
 	// activeCall is an atomic int32; the low bit is whether Close has
 	// been called. the rest of the bits are the number of goroutines
 	// in Conn.Write.
@@ -712,6 +716,76 @@ func (c *Conn) sendAlert(err alert) error {
 	return c.sendAlertLocked(err)
 }
 
+const (
+	// tcpMSSEstimate is a conservative estimate of the TCP maximum segment
+	// size (MSS). A constant is used, rather than querying the kernel for
+	// the actual MSS, to avoid complexity. The value here is the IPv6
+	// minimum MTU (1280 bytes) minus the overhead of an IPv6 header (40
+	// bytes) and a TCP header with timestamps (32 bytes).
+	tcpMSSEstimate = 1208
+
+	// recordSizeBoostThreshold is the number of bytes of application data
+	// sent after which the TLS record size will be increased to the
+	// maximum.
+	recordSizeBoostThreshold = 1 * 1024 * 1024
+)
+
+// maxPayloadSizeForWrite returns the maximum TLS payload size to use for the
+// next application data record. There is the following trade-off:
+//
+//   - For latency-sensitive applications, such as web browsing, each TLS
+//     record should fit in one TCP segment.
+//   - For throughput-sensitive applications, such as large file transfers,
+//     larger TLS records better amortize framing and encryption overheads.
+//
+// A simple heuristic that works well in practice is to use small records for
+// the first 1MB of data, then use larger records for subsequent data, and
+// reset back to smaller records after the connection becomes idle. See "High
+// Performance Web Networking", Chapter 4, or:
+// https://www.igvita.com/2013/10/24/optimizing-tls-record-size-and-buffering-latency/
+//
+// In the interests of simplicity and determinism, this code does not attempt
+// to reset the record size once the connection is idle, however.
+//
+// c.out.Mutex <= L.
+func (c *Conn) maxPayloadSizeForWrite(typ recordType, explicitIVLen int) int {
+	if c.config.DynamicRecordSizingDisabled || typ != recordTypeApplicationData {
+		return maxPlaintext
+	}
+
+	if c.bytesSent >= recordSizeBoostThreshold {
+		return maxPlaintext
+	}
+
+	// Subtract TLS overheads to get the maximum payload size.
+	macSize := 0
+	if c.out.mac != nil {
+		macSize = c.out.mac.Size()
+	}
+
+	payloadBytes := tcpMSSEstimate - recordHeaderLen - explicitIVLen
+	if c.out.cipher != nil {
+		switch ciph := c.out.cipher.(type) {
+		case cipher.Stream:
+			payloadBytes -= macSize
+		case cipher.AEAD:
+			payloadBytes -= ciph.Overhead()
+		case cbcMode:
+			blockSize := ciph.BlockSize()
+			// The payload must fit in a multiple of blockSize, with
+			// room for at least one padding byte.
+			payloadBytes = (payloadBytes & ^(blockSize - 1)) - 1
+			// The MAC is appended before padding so affects the
+			// payload size directly.
+			payloadBytes -= macSize
+		default:
+			panic("unknown cipher type")
+		}
+	}
+
+	return payloadBytes
+}
+
 // writeRecord writes a TLS record with the given type and payload
 // to the connection and updates the record layer state.
 // c.out.Mutex <= L.
@@ -721,10 +795,6 @@ func (c *Conn) writeRecord(typ recordType, data []byte) (int, error) {
 
 	var n int
 	for len(data) > 0 {
-		m := len(data)
-		if m > maxPlaintext {
-			m = maxPlaintext
-		}
 		explicitIVLen := 0
 		explicitIVIsSeq := false
 
@@ -747,6 +817,10 @@ func (c *Conn) writeRecord(typ recordType, data []byte) (int, error) {
 				explicitIVIsSeq = true
 			}
 		}
+		m := len(data)
+		if maxPayload := c.maxPayloadSizeForWrite(typ, explicitIVLen); m > maxPayload {
+			m = maxPayload
+		}
 		b.resize(recordHeaderLen + explicitIVLen + m)
 		b.data[0] = byte(typ)
 		vers := c.vers
@@ -774,6 +848,7 @@ func (c *Conn) writeRecord(typ recordType, data []byte) (int, error) {
 		if _, err := c.conn.Write(b.data); err != nil {
 			return n, err
 		}
+		c.bytesSent += int64(m)
 		n += m
 		data = data[m:]
 	}

conn_test.go

@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 package tls
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"io"
+	"net"
 	"testing"
 )
 
@@ -116,3 +119,128 @@ func TestCertificateSelection(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("foo.bar.baz.example.com returned certificate %d, not 0", n)
 	}
 }
+
+// Run with multiple crypto configs to test the logic for computing TLS record overheads.
+func runDynamicRecordSizingTest(t *testing.T, config *Config) {
+	clientConn, serverConn := net.Pipe()
+
+	serverConfig := *config
+	serverConfig.DynamicRecordSizingDisabled = false
+	tlsConn := Server(serverConn, &serverConfig)
+
+	recordSizesChan := make(chan []int, 1)
+	go func() {
+		// This goroutine performs a TLS handshake over clientConn and
+		// then reads TLS records until EOF. It writes a slice that
+		// contains all the record sizes to recordSizesChan.
+		defer close(recordSizesChan)
+		defer clientConn.Close()
+
+		tlsConn := Client(clientConn, config)
+		if err := tlsConn.Handshake(); err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("Error from client handshake: %s", err)
+			return
+		}
+
+		var recordHeader [recordHeaderLen]byte
+		var record []byte
+		var recordSizes []int
+
+		for {
+			n, err := clientConn.Read(recordHeader[:])
+			if err == io.EOF {
+				break
+			}
+			if err != nil || n != len(recordHeader) {
+				t.Errorf("Error from client read: %s", err)
+				return
+			}
+
+			length := int(recordHeader[3])<<8 | int(recordHeader[4])
+			if len(record) < length {
+				record = make([]byte, length)
+			}
+
+			n, err = clientConn.Read(record[:length])
+			if err != nil || n != length {
+				t.Errorf("Error from client read: %s", err)
+				return
+			}
+
+			// The last record will be a close_notify alert, which
+			// we don't wish to record.
+			if recordType(recordHeader[0]) == recordTypeApplicationData {
+				recordSizes = append(recordSizes, recordHeaderLen+length)
+			}
+		}
+
+		recordSizesChan <- recordSizes
+	}()
+
+	if err := tlsConn.Handshake(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error from server handshake: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	// The server writes these plaintexts in order.
+	plaintext := bytes.Join([][]byte{
+		bytes.Repeat([]byte("x"), recordSizeBoostThreshold),
+		bytes.Repeat([]byte("y"), maxPlaintext*2),
+		bytes.Repeat([]byte("z"), maxPlaintext),
+	}, nil)
+
+	if _, err := tlsConn.Write(plaintext); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error from server write: %s", err)
+	}
+	if err := tlsConn.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error from server close: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	recordSizes := <-recordSizesChan
+	if recordSizes == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Client encountered an error")
+	}
+
+	// Drop the size of last record, which is likely to be truncated.
+	recordSizes = recordSizes[:len(recordSizes)-1]
+
+	// recordSizes should contain a series of records smaller than
+	// tcpMSSEstimate followed by some larger than maxPlaintext.
+	seenLargeRecord := false
+	for i, size := range recordSizes {
+		if !seenLargeRecord {
+			if size > tcpMSSEstimate {
+				if i < 100 {
+					t.Fatalf("Record #%d has size %d, which is too large too soon", i, size)
+				}
+				if size <= maxPlaintext {
+					t.Fatalf("Record #%d has odd size %d", i, size)
+				}
+				seenLargeRecord = true
+			}
+		} else if size <= maxPlaintext {
+			t.Fatalf("Record #%d has size %d but should be full sized", i, size)
+		}
+	}
+
+	if !seenLargeRecord {
+		t.Fatalf("No large records observed")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestDynamicRecordSizingWithStreamCipher(t *testing.T) {
+	config := *testConfig
+	config.CipherSuites = []uint16{TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA}
+	runDynamicRecordSizingTest(t, &config)
+}
+
+func TestDynamicRecordSizingWithCBC(t *testing.T) {
+	config := *testConfig
+	config.CipherSuites = []uint16{TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA}
+	runDynamicRecordSizingTest(t, &config)
+}
+
+func TestDynamicRecordSizingWithAEAD(t *testing.T) {
+	config := *testConfig
+	config.CipherSuites = []uint16{TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256}
+	runDynamicRecordSizingTest(t, &config)
+}