RFC 1644 (rfc1644) - Page 1 of 38

T/TCP -- TCP Extensions for Transactions Functional Specification

Network Working Group                                          R. Braden
Request for Comments: 1644                                           ISI
Category: Experimental                                         July 1994

                T/TCP -- TCP Extensions for Transactions
                        Functional Specification

Status of this Memo

   This memo describes an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.
   It does not specify an Internet Standard.  Distribution is unlimited.

Abstract

   This memo specifies T/TCP, an experimental TCP extension for
   efficient transaction-oriented (request/response) service.  This
   backwards-compatible extension could fill the gap between the current
   connection-oriented TCP and the datagram-based UDP.

   This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation
   under Grant Number NCR-8922231.

Table of Contents

 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................  2
 2.  OVERVIEW .....................................................  3
    2.1  Bypassing the Three-Way Handshake ........................  4
    2.2  Transaction Sequences ....................................  6
    2.3  Protocol Correctness .....................................  8
    2.4  Truncating TIME-WAIT State ............................... 12
    2.5  Transition to Standard TCP Operation ..................... 14
 3.  FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION ..................................... 17
    3.1  Data Structures .......................................... 17
    3.2  New TCP Options .......................................... 17
    3.3  Connection States ........................................ 19
    3.4  T/TCP Processing Rules ................................... 25
    3.5  User Interface ........................................... 28
 4.  IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES ........................................ 30
    4.1  RFC-1323 Extensions ...................................... 30
    4.2  Minimal Packet Sequence .................................. 31
    4.3  RTT Measurement .......................................... 31
    4.4  Cache Implementation ..................................... 32
    4.5  CPU Performance .......................................... 32
    4.6  Pre-SYN Queue ............................................ 33
 6.  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................. 34
 7.  REFERENCES ................................................... 34
 APPENDIX A.  ALGORITHM SUMMARY ................................... 35



Braden