diff --git a/include/net/sctp/structs.h b/include/net/sctp/structs.h
index 0dfc5c14b696..6a0d37258506 100644
--- a/include/net/sctp/structs.h
+++ b/include/net/sctp/structs.h
@@ -735,7 +735,7 @@ struct sctp_transport {
 	struct rhlist_head node;
 
 	/* Reference counting. */
-	atomic_t refcnt;
+	refcount_t refcnt;
 		/* RTO-Pending : A flag used to track if one of the DATA
 		 *		chunks sent to this address is currently being
 		 *		used to compute a RTT. If this flag is 0,
diff --git a/net/sctp/transport.c b/net/sctp/transport.c
index 7cdd6bcddbc5..80a97c8501a7 100644
--- a/net/sctp/transport.c
+++ b/net/sctp/transport.c
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ static struct sctp_transport *sctp_transport_init(struct net *net,
 	/* Initialize the 64-bit random nonce sent with heartbeat. */
 	get_random_bytes(&peer->hb_nonce, sizeof(peer->hb_nonce));
 
-	atomic_set(&peer->refcnt, 1);
+	refcount_set(&peer->refcnt, 1);
 
 	return peer;
 }
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ static void sctp_transport_destroy_rcu(struct rcu_head *head)
  */
 static void sctp_transport_destroy(struct sctp_transport *transport)
 {
-	if (unlikely(atomic_read(&transport->refcnt))) {
+	if (unlikely(refcount_read(&transport->refcnt))) {
 		WARN(1, "Attempt to destroy undead transport %p!\n", transport);
 		return;
 	}
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ void sctp_transport_route(struct sctp_transport *transport,
 /* Hold a reference to a transport.  */
 int sctp_transport_hold(struct sctp_transport *transport)
 {
-	return atomic_add_unless(&transport->refcnt, 1, 0);
+	return refcount_inc_not_zero(&transport->refcnt);
 }
 
 /* Release a reference to a transport and clean up
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ int sctp_transport_hold(struct sctp_transport *transport)
  */
 void sctp_transport_put(struct sctp_transport *transport)
 {
-	if (atomic_dec_and_test(&transport->refcnt))
+	if (refcount_dec_and_test(&transport->refcnt))
 		sctp_transport_destroy(transport);
 }