RFC 54 (rfc54) - Page 1 of 9
Official Protocol Proffering
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group Steve Crocker (UCLA)
Request for Comments # 54 Jon Postel (UCLA)
June 18, 1970 John Newkirk (Harvard)
Mike Kraley (Harvard)
An Official Protocol Proffering
I. INTRODUCTION
As advertised in NEW/RFC #53, we are submitting the protocol herein
for criticism, comments, etc. We intend for this protocol to become
the initial official protocol, and will, therefore, be happiest if no
serious objections are raised. Nevertheless, we will entertain all
manner of criticism until July 13, 1970, and such criticism should be
published as a NWG/RFC or directed to the first author.
After July 13, a decision will be made whether to adopt this protocol
(or slight variation) or whether to redesign it and resubmit it for
criticism.
Only the Protocol
In preceding discussions of protocol, no clear distinction has been
made between the network-wide specifications and local strategies.
We state here that the only network-wide issues are message formats
and restrictions on message content. Implementation of a Network
Control Program (NCP) and choice of system calls are strictly local
issues.
This document is constrained to cover only network-wide issues and
thus will not treat system calls or NCP tables; nevertheless, a
protocol is useless without an NCP and a set of system calls, so we
have expended a great deal of effort in deriving a protypical NCP.
This effort is reported in NWG/RFC #55, and the reader should
correlate the protocol presented here with the suggestions for using
it presented there. It is important to remember, however, that the
content of NWG/RFC #55 is only suggestive and that competitive
proposals should be examined before choosing an implementation.
Flow Control
In the course of designing this current protocol, we have come to
understand that flow control is more complex than we imagined. We
now believe that flow control techniques will be one of the active
areas of concern as the network traffic increases. We have,
therefore, benefitted from some ideas stimulated by Richard Kaline
and Anatol Holt and have modified the flow control procedure.
(Defects in our scheme are, of course, only our fault). This new
Crocker, Postel, Newkirk & Kraley