opal/ofi: update nic selection function doc

The documentation needs an update to reflect latest implementation.
The original cpuset matching logic has been replaced with a new distance
calculation algorithm.
This change also clarifies the round-robin selection process when we need to
break a tie.

Signed-off-by: Wenduo Wang <[email protected]>

opal/mca/common/ofi/common_ofi.c

@@ -623,10 +623,10 @@ static int get_provider_distance(struct fi_info *provider, hwloc_topology_t topo
 /**
  * @brief Get the nearest device to the current thread
  *
- * Use the PMIx server or calculate the device distances, then out of the set of
- * returned distances find the subset of the nearest devices. This can be
- * 0 or more.
- * If there are multiple equidistant devices, break the tie using the rank.
+ * Compute the distances from the current thread to each NIC in provider_list,
+ * and select the NIC with the shortest distance.
+ * If there are multiple equidistant devices, break the tie using local rank
+ * to balance NIC utilization.
  *
  * @param[in]   topoloy          hwloc topology
  * @param[in]   provider_list    List of providers to select from
@@ -898,6 +898,10 @@ struct fi_info *opal_common_ofi_select_provider(struct fi_info *provider_list,
     package_rank = get_package_rank(process_info);
 
 #if OPAL_OFI_PCI_DATA_AVAILABLE
+    /**
+     * If provider PCI BDF information is available, we calculate its physical distance
+     * to the current process, and select the provider with the shortest distance.
+     */
     ret = get_nearest_nic(opal_hwloc_topology, provider_list, num_providers, package_rank,
                           &provider);
     if (OPAL_SUCCESS == ret) {

opal/mca/common/ofi/common_ofi.h

@@ -103,47 +103,47 @@ OPAL_DECLSPEC int opal_common_ofi_is_in_list(char **list, char *item);
 /**
  * Selects NIC (provider) based on hardware locality
  *
- * In multi-nic situations, use hardware topology to pick the "best"
- * of the selected NICs.
- * There are 3 main cases that this covers:
- *
- *      1. If the first provider passed into this function is the only valid
- *      provider, this provider is returned.
- *
- *      2. If there is more than 1 provider that matches the type of the first
- *      provider in the list, and the BDF data
- *      is available then a provider is selected based on locality of device
- *      cpuset and process cpuset and tries to ensure that processes
- *      are distributed evenly across NICs. This has two separate
- *      cases:
- *
- *          i. There is one or more provider local to the process:
- *
- *              (local rank % number of providers of the same type
- *              that share the process cpuset) is used to select one
- *              of these providers.
- *
- *          ii. There is no provider that is local to the process:
- *
- *              (local rank % number of providers of the same type)
- *              is used to select one of these providers
- *
- *      3. If there is more than 1 providers of the same type in the
- *      list, and the BDF data is not available (the ofi version does
- *      not support fi_info.nic or the provider does not support BDF)
- *      then (local rank % number of providers of the same type) is
- *      used to select one of these providers
- *
- * @param provider_list (IN)   struct fi_info* An initially selected
- *                             provider NIC. The provider name and
- *                             attributes are used to restrict NIC
- *                             selection. This provider is returned if the
- *                             NIC selection fails.
- *
- * @param provider (OUT)       struct fi_info* object with the selected
- *                             provider if the selection succeeds
- *                             if the selection fails, returns the fi_info
- *                             object that was initially provided.
+ * The selection is based on the following priority:
+ *
+ * Single-NIC:
+ * 
+ *      If only 1 provider is available, always return that provider.
+ * 
+ * Multi-NIC:
+ * 
+ *      1. If the process is NOT bound, pick a NIC using (local rank % number
+ *      of providers of the same type). This gives a fair chance to each
+ *      qualified NIC and balances overall utilization.
+ *
+ *      2. If the process is bound, we compare providers in the list that have
+ *      the same type as the first provider, and find the provider with the
+ *      shortest distance to the current process. 
+ * 
+ *          i. If the provider has PCI BDF data, we attempt to compute the
+ *          distance between the NIC and the current process cpuset. The NIC
+ *          with the shortest distance is returned.
+ * 
+ *              * For equidistant NICs, we select a NIC in round-robin fashion
+ *              using the package rank of the current process, i.e. (package
+ *              rank % number of providers with the same distance).
+ *
+ *          ii. If we cannot compute the distance between the NIC and the
+ *          current process, e.g. PCI BDF data is not available, a NIC will be
+ *          selected in a round-robin fashion using package rank, i.e. (package
+ *          rank % number of providers of the same type).
+ *
+ * @param[in]   provider_list   struct fi_info* An initially selected
+ *                              provider NIC. The provider name and
+ *                              attributes are used to restrict NIC
+ *                              selection. This provider is returned if the
+ *                              NIC selection fails.
+ * 
+ * @param[in]   process_info    opal_process_info_t* The current process info
+ *
+ * @param[out]  provider        struct fi_info* object with the selected
+ *                              provider if the selection succeeds
+ *                              if the selection fails, returns the fi_info
+ *                              object that was initially provided.
  *
  * All errors should be recoverable and will return the initially provided
  * provider. However, if an error occurs we can no longer guarantee
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ OPAL_DECLSPEC int opal_common_ofi_is_in_list(char **list, char *item);
  *
  */
 OPAL_DECLSPEC struct fi_info *opal_common_ofi_select_provider(struct fi_info *provider_list,
-                                                                  opal_process_info_t *process_info);
+                                                              opal_process_info_t *process_info);
 
 /**
  * Obtain EP endpoint name