RFC 2414 (rfc2414) - Page 1 of 14
Increasing TCP's Initial Window
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. Allman
Request for Comments: 2414 NASA Lewis/Sterling Software
Category: Experimental S. Floyd
LBNL
C. Partridge
BBN Technologies
September 1998
Increasing TCP's Initial Window
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document specifies an increase in the permitted initial window
for TCP from one segment to roughly 4K bytes. This document
discusses the advantages and disadvantages of such a change,
outlining experimental results that indicate the costs and benefits
of such a change to TCP.
Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC 2119].
1. TCP Modification
This document specifies an increase in the permitted upper bound for
TCP's initial window from one segment to between two and four
segments. In most cases, this change results in an upper bound on
the initial window of roughly 4K bytes (although given a large
segment size, the permitted initial window of two segments could be
significantly larger than 4K bytes). The upper bound for the initial
window is given more precisely in (1):
min (4*MSS, max (2*MSS, 4380 bytes)) (1)
Allman, et. al. Experimental