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RFC 0675

Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program

Pages: 70
Obsoleted by:  7805
Part 1 of 3 – Pages 1 to 19
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ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 1
Network Working Group                                        Vinton Cerf
Request for Comments: 675                                    Yogen Dalal
NIC: 2                                                     Carl Sunshine
INWG: 72                                                   December 1974


         SPECIFICATION OF INTERNET TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROGRAM
	
                         December 1974 Version


1.  INTRODUCTION

   This document describes the functions to be performed by the
   internetwork Transmission Control Program [TCP] and its interface to
   programs or users that require its services. Several basic
   assumptions are made about process to process communication and these
   are listed here without further justification. The interested reader
   is referred to [CEKA74, TOML74, BELS74, DALA74, SUNS74] for further
   discussion.

   The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of R.
   Tomlinson (three way handshake and Initial Sequence Number
   Selection), D. Belsnes, J. Burchfiel, M. Galland, R. Kahn, D. Lloyd,
   W. Plummer, and J. Postel all of whose good ideas and counsel have
   had a beneficial effect (we hope) on this protocol design.  In the
   early phases of the design work, R. Metcalfe, A. McKenzie, H.
   Zimmerman, G. LeLann, and M. Elie were most helpful in explicating
   the various issues to be resolved. Of course, we remain responsible
   for the remaining errors and misstatements which no doubt lurk in the
   nooks and crannies of the text.

   Processes are viewed as the active elements of all HOST computers in
   a network. Even terminals and files or other I/O media are viewed as
   communicating through the use of processes. Thus, all network
   communication is viewed as inter-process communication.

   Since a process may need to distinguish among several communication
   streams between itself and another process [or processes], we imagine
   that each process may have a number of PORTs through which it
   communicates with the ports of other processes.

   Since port names are selected independently by each operating system,
   TCP, or user, they may not be unique. To provide for unique names at
   each TCP, we concatenate a NETWORK identifier, and a TCP identifier
   with a port name to create a SOCKET name which will be unique
   throughout all networks connected together.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 2
   A pair of sockets form a CONNECTION which can be used to carry data
   in either direction [i.e. full duplex]. The connection is uniquely
   identified by the <local socket, foreign socket> address pair, and
   the same local socket can participate in multiple connections to
   different foreign sockets [see Section 2.2].

   Processes exchange finite length LETTERS as a way of communicating;
   thus, letter boundaries are significant. However, the length of a
   letter may be such that it must be broken into FRAGMENTS before it
   can be transmitted to its destination. We assume that the fragments
   will normally be reassembled into a letter before being passed to the
   receiving process. Throughout this document, it is legitimate to
   assume that a fragment contains all or a part of a letter, but that a
   fragment never contains parts of more than one letter.

   We specifically assume that fragments are transmitted from Host to
   Host through means of a PACKET SWITCHING NETWORK [PSN] [ROWE70,
   POUZ73]. This assumption is probably unnecessary, since a circuit
   switched network could also be used, but for concreteness, we
   explicitly assume that the hosts are connected to one or more PACKET
   SWITCHES [PS] of a PSN [HEKA7O, POUZ74, SCWI71].

   Processes make use of the TCP by handing it letters. The TCP breaks
   these into fragments, if necessary, and then embeds each fragment in
   an INTERNETWORK PACKET. Each internetwork packet is in turn embedded
   in a LOCAL PACKET suitable for transmission from the host to one of
   its serving PS. The packet switches may perform further formatting or
   other operations to achieve the delivery of the local packet to the
   destination Host.

   The term LOCAL PACKET is used generically here to mean the formatted
   bit string exchanged between a host and a packet switch. The format
   of bit strings exchanged between the packet switches in a PSN will
   generally not be of concern to us. If an internetwork packet is
   destined for a TCP in a foreign PSN, the packet is routed to a
   GATEWAY which connects the origin PSN with an intermediate or the
   destination PSN. Routing of internetwork packets to the GATEWAY may
   be the responsibility of the source TCP or the local PSN, depending
   upon the PSN Implementation.

   One model of TCP operation is to imagine that there is a basic
   GATEWAY associated with each TCP which provides an interface to the
   local network. This basic GATEWAY performs routing and packet
   reformatting or embedding, and may also implement congestion and
   error control between the TCP and GATEWAYS at or intermediate to the
   destination TCP.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 3
   At a GATEWAY between networks, the internetwork packet is unwrapped
   from its local packet format and examined to determine through which
   network the internetwork packet should travel next. The internetwork
   packet is then wrapped in a local packet format suitable to the next
   network and passed on to a new packet switch.

   A GATEWAY is permitted to break up the fragment carried by an
   internetwork packet into smaller fragments if this is necessary for
   transmission through the next network. To do this, the GATEWAY
   produces a set of internetwork packets, each carrying a new fragment.
   The packet format is designed so that the destination TCP may treat
   fragments created by the source TCP or by intermediate GATEWAYS
   nearly identically.

   The TCP is responsible for regulating the flow of internetwork
   packets to and from the processes it serves, as a way of preventing
   its host from becoming saturated or overloaded with traffic. The TCP
   is also responsible for retransmitting unacknowledged packets, and
   for detecting duplicates. A consequence of this error
   detection/retransmission scheme is that the order of letters received
   on a given connection is also maintained [CEKA74, SUNS74]. To perform
   these functions, the TCP opens and closes connections between ports
   as described in Section 4.3. The TCP performs retransmission,
   duplicate detection, sequencing, and flow control on all
   communication among the processes it serves.

2.  The TCP INTERFACE to the USER

2.1  The TCP as a POST OFFICE

   The TCP acts in many ways like a postal service since it provides a
   way for processes to exchange letters with each other. It sometimes
   happens that a process may offer some service, but not know in
   advance what its correspondents' addresses are. The analogy can be
   drawn with a mail order house which opens a post office box which can
   accept mail from any source. Unlike the post box, however, once a
   letter from a particular correspondent arrives, a port becomes
   specific to the correspondent until the owner of the port declares
   otherwise.

   In addition to acting like a postal service, the TCP insures end-to-
   end acknowledgment, error correction, duplicate detection,
   sequencing, and flow control.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 4
2.2  Sockets and Addressing

   We have borrowed the term SOCKET from the ARPANET terminology
   [CACR70, MCKE73]. In general, a socket is the concatenation of a
   NETWORK identifier, TCP identifier, and PORT identifier. A CONNECTION
   is fully specified by the pair of SOCKETS at each end since the same
   local socket may participate in many connections to different foreign
   sockets.

   Once the connections is specified in the OPEN command [see section
   2.3.2], the TCP supplies a [short] Local Connection Name by which the
   user refers to the connection in subsequent commands. In particular
   this facilitates using connections with initially unspecified foreign
   sockets.

   TCP's are free to associate ports with processes however they choose.
   However, several basic concepts seem necessary in an implementation.
   There must be well known sockets [WKS] which the TCP associates only
   with the "appropriate" processes by some means. We envision that
   processes may "own" sockets, and that processes can only initiate
   connections on the sockets they own [means for implementing ownership
   is a local issue, but we envision a Request Port user call, or a
   method of uniquely allocating a group of ports to a given process,
   e.g. by associating the high order bits of a port name with a given
   process.]

   Once initiated, a connection may be passed to another process that
   does not own the local socket [e.g. from logger to service process].
   Strictly speaking this is a reconnection issue which might be more
   elegantly handled by a general reconnection protocol as discussed in
   section 3.3. To simplify passing a connection within a single TCP,
   such "invisible" switches may be allowed as in TENEX systems.

   Of course, each connection is associated with exactly one process,
   and any attempt to reference that connection by another process will
   be signaled as an error by the TCP. This prevents stealing data from
   or inserting data into another process' data stream.

   A connection is initiated by the rendezvous of an arriving
   internetwork packet and a waiting Transmission Control Block [TCB]
   created by a user OPEN, SEND, INTERPUPT, or RECEIVE call [see section
   2.3]. The matching of local and foreign socket identifiers determines
   when a successful connection has been initiated. The connection
   becomes established when sequence numbers have been synchronized in
   both directions as described in section 4.3.2.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 5
   It is possible to specify a socket only partially by setting the PORT
   identifier to zero or setting both the TCP and PORT identifiers to
   zero. A socket of all zero is called UNSPECIFIED. The purpose behind
   unspecified sockets is to provide a sort of "general delivery"
   facility [useful for logger type processes with well known sockets].

   There are bounds on the degree of unspecificity of socket
   identifiers. TCB's must have fully specified local sockets, although
   the foreign socket may be fully or partly unspecified. Arriving
   packets must have fully specified sockets.

   We employ the following notation:

    x.y.z = fully specified socket with x=net, y=TCP, z=port

    x.y.u = as above, but unspecified port

    x.u.u = as above, but unspecified TCP and port

    u.u.u = completely unspecified

    with respect to implementation, u = 0 [zero]

    We illustrate the principles of matching by giving all cases of
    incoming packets which match with existing TCB's. Generally, both
    the local (foreign) socket of the TCB and the foreign (local) socket
    of the packet must match.

          TCB local   TCB foreign     Packet local    Packet foreign

    (a)     a.b.c       e.f.g           e.f.g           a.b.c

    (b)     a.b.c       e.f.u           e.f.g           a.b.c

    (c)     a.b.c       e.u.u           e.f.g           a.b.c

    (d)     a.b.c       u.u.u           e.f.g           a.b.c

    There are no other legal combinations of socket identifiers which
    match. Case (d) is typical of the ARPANET well known socket idea in
    which the well known socket (a.b.c) LISTENS for a connection from
    any (u.u.u) socket. Cases (b) and (c) can be used to restrict
    matching to a particular TCP or net.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 6
2.3  TCP USER CALLS

2.3.1  A Note on Style

    The following sections functionally define the USER/TCP interface.
    The notation used is similar to most procedure or function calls in
    high level languages, but this usage is not meant to rule out trap
    type service calls [e.g. SVC's, UUO's, EMT's,...].

    The user calls described below specify the basic functions the TCP
    will perform to support interprocess communication. Individual
    implementations should define their own exact format, and may
    provide combinations or subsets of the basic functions in single
    calls. In particular, some implementations may wish to automatically
    OPEN a connection on the first SEND, RECEIVE, or INTERRUPT issued by
    the user for a given connection.

    In providing interprocess communication facilities, the TCP must not
    only accept commands, but also return information to the processes
    it serves. This communication consists of:

    (a) general information about a connection [interrupts, remote
        close, binding of unspecified foreign socket].

    (b) replies to specific user commands indicating success or various
        types of failure.

   Although the means for signaling user processes and the exact format
   of replies will vary from one implementation to another, it would
   promote common understanding and testing if a common set of codes
   were adopted. Such a set of Event Codes is described in section 2.4.

   With respect to error messages, references to "local" and "foreign"
   are ambiguous unless it is known whether these refer to the world as
   seen by the sender or receiver of the error message. The authors
   attempted several different approaches and finally settled on the
   convention that these references would be as seen by the receiver of
   the message.

2.3.2  OPEN CONNECTION

   Format: OPEN(local port, foreign socket [, timeout])

   We assume that the local TCP is aware of the identity of the
   processes it serves and will check the authority of the process to
   use the connection specified. Depending upon the implementation of
   the TCP, the source network and TCP identifiers will either be
   supplied by the TCP or by the processes that serve it [e.g. the
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 7
   program which interfaces the TCP to its packet switch or the packet
   switch itself]. These considerations are the result of concern about
   security, to the extent that no TCP be able to masquerade as another
   one, and so on. Similarly, no process can masquerade as another
   without the collusion of the TCP.

   If no foreign socket is specified [i.e. the foreign socket parameter
   is 0 or not present], then this constitutes a LISTENING local socket
   which can accept communication from any foreign socket. Provision is
   also made for partial specification of foreign sockets as described
   in section 2.2.

   If the specified connection is already OPEN, an error is returned,
   otherwise a full-duplex transmission control block [TCB] is created
   and partially filled in with data from the OPEN command parameters.
   The TCB format is described in more detail in section 4.2.2.

   No network traffic is generated by the OPEN command. The first SEND
   or INTERRUPT by the local user or the foreign user will cause the TCP
   to synchronize the connection.

   The timeout, if present, permits the caller to set up a timeout for
   all letters transmitted on the connection. If a letter is not
   successfully transmitted within the timeout period, the user is
   notified and may ignore the condition [TCP will continue trying to
   transmit] or direct the TCP to close the connection. The present
   global default is 30 seconds, and connections which are set up
   without specifying another timeout will retransmit every letter for
   at least 30 seconds before notifying the user. The retransmission
   rate may vary, and is the responsibility of the TCP and not the user.
   Most likely, it will be related to the measured time for responses to
   return from letters sent.

   Depending on the TCP implementation, either a local connection name
   will be returned to the user by the TCP, or the user will specify
   this local connection name (in which case another parameter is needed
   in the call). The local connection name can then be used as a short
   hand term for the connection defined by the <local socket, foreign
   socket> pair.

   Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
   detailed in section 2.4.

2.3.3 SEND LETTER

   Format: SEND(local connection name, buffer address, byte count, EOL
   flag [, timeout])
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 8
   This call causes the data contained in the indicated user buffer to
   be sent on the indicated connection. If the connection has not been
   opened, the SEND is considered an error. Some implementations may
   allow users to SEND first, in which case an automatic OPEN would be
   done. If the calling process is not authorized to use this
   connection, an error is returned.

   If the EOL flag is set, the data is the End Of a Letter, and the EOL
   bit will be set in the last packet created from the buffer. If the
   EOL f1ag is not set, subsequent SEND's will appear as part of the
   same letter. This extended letter facility should be used sparingly
   because some TCP's may delay processing packets until an entire
   letter is received.

   If no foreign socket was specified in the OPEN, but the connection is
   established [e.g. because a listening connection has become specific
   due to a foreign letter arriving for the local port] then the
   designated letter is sent to the implied foreign socket. In general,
   users who make use of OPEN with an unspecified foreign socket can
   make use of SEND without ever explicitly knowing the foreign socket
   address.

   However, if a SEND is attempted before the foreign socket becomes
   specified, an error will be returned. Users can use the STATUS call
   to determine the status of the connection. In some implementations
   the TCP may notify the user when an unspecified socket is bound.

   If the timeout is specified, then the current default timeout for
   this connection is changed to the new one. This can affect not only
   all letters sent including and after this one, but also those which
   have not yet been sent, since the timeout is kept in the TCB and not
   associated with each letter sent. Of course, a time is maintained for
   each internetwork packet formed so as to determine how long each of
   these has been on the retransmission queue.

   In the simplest implementation, SEND would not return control to the
   sending process until either the transmission was complete or the
   timeout had been exceeded. This simple method is highly subject to
   deadlocks and is not recommended. [For example both sides of the
   connection try to do SEND's before doing any RECEIVE's.] A more
   sophisticated implementation would return immediately to allow the
   process to run concurrently with network I/O, and, furthermore, to
   allow multiple SENDs to be in progress concurrently. Multiple SENDs
   are served in first come, first served order, so the TCP will queue
   those it cannot service immediately.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 9
   NOTA BENE: In order for the process to distinguish among error or
   success indications for different letters, the buffer address should
   be returned along with the coded response to the SEND request. We
   will offer an example event code format in section 2.4, showing the
   information which should be returned to the calling process.

   The semantics of the INTERRUPT call are described later, but this
   call can have an effect on letters which have been given to the TCP
   but not yet sent. In particular, all such letters are flushed by the
   source TCP. Thus one of the responses to a SEND may be "flushed due
   to interrupt."

   Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
   detailed in section 2.4.

2.3.4  RECEIVE LETTER

   Format: RECEIVE(local connection name, buffer address, byte count)

   This command allocates a receiving buffer associated with the
   specified connection. If no OPEN precedes this command or the calling
   process is not authorized to use this connection, an error is
   returned.

   In the simplest implementation, control would not return to the
   calling program until either a letter was received, or some error
   occurred, but this scheme is highly subject to deadlocks [see section
   2.3.3]. A more sophisticated implementation would permit several
   RECEIVE's to be outstanding at once, These would be filled as letters
   arrive. This strategy permits increased throughput, at the cost of a
   more elaborate scheme [possibly asynchronous] to notify the calling
   program that a letter has been received.

   If insufficient buffer space is given to reassemble a complete
   letter, an indication that the buffer holds a partial letter will be
   given; the buffer will be filled with as much data as it can hold.

   The remaining parts of a partly delivered letter will be placed in
   buffers as they are made available via successive RECEIVES. If a
   number of RECEIVES are outstanding, they may be filled with parts of
   a single long letter or with at most one letter each. The event codes
   associated with each RECEIVE will indicate what is contained in the
   buffer.

   To distinguish among several outstanding RECEIVES, and to take care
   of the case that a letter is smaller than the buffer supplied, the
   event code is accompanied by both a buffer pointer and a byte count
   indicating the actual length of the letter received.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 10
   The semantics of the INTERRUPT system call are discussed later, but
   this call can have an effect on outstanding RECEIVES. When the TCP
   receives an INTERRUPT, it will flush all data currently queued up
   awaiting receipt by the receiving process. If no data is waiting, but
   several buffers have been made available by anticipatory RECEIVE
   commands, these buffers are returned to the process with an error
   indicating that any data that might have been placed in those buffers
   has been flushed. This enables the receiving process to synchronize
   its RECEIVES with the interrupt. That is, the process can distinguish
   between RECEIVES issued before the receipt of the INTERRUPT and these
   issued afterwards.

   Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
   detailed in section 2.4.

2.3.5  CLOSE CONNECTION

   Format: CLOSE(local connection name)

   This command causes the connection specified to be closed. If the
   connection is not open or the calling process is not authorized to
   use this connection, an error is returned. Any unfilled receive
   buffers or pending send buffers will be returned to the user with
   event codes indicating they were aborted due to the CLOSE. Users
   should wait for event codes for each SEND before closing the
   connection if they wish to be certain that all letters were
   successfully delivered.

   The user may CLOSE the connection at any time on his own initiative,
   or in response to various prompts from the TCP [remote close
   executed, transmission timeout exceeded, destination inaccessible].

   Because closing a connection requires communication with the foreign
   TCP, connections may remain in the closing state for a short time.
   Attempts to reopen the connection before the TCP replies to the CLOSE
   command will result in errors.

   Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
   detailed in section 2.4.

2.3.6  INTERRUPT

   Format: INTERRUPT(local connection name)

   A special control signal is sent to the destination indicating an
   interrupt condition. This facility can be used to simulate "break"
   signals from terminals or error or completion codes from I/O devices,
   for example. The semantics of this signal to the receiving process
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 11
   are unspecified. The receiving TCP will signal the interrupt to the
   receiving process immediately upon receipt, and will also flush any
   outstanding letters waiting to be delivered. Since it is possib1e to
   tell where in the letter stream this command was invoked, it is
   possible for the receiving TCP to flush only preceding data. The
   sending TCP will flush any letters pending transmission, returning a
   special error code to indicate the flush.

   If the connection is not open or the calling process is not
   authorized to use this connection, an error is returned.

   Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
   detailed in section 2.4.

2.3.7  STATUS

   Format: STATUS(local connection name)

   This command returns a data block containing the following
   information:

    local socket, foreign socket, local connection name, receive window,
    send window, connection state, number of letters awaiting
    acknowledgment, number of letters pending receipt [including partial
    ones], default transmission timeout

    Depending on the state of the connection, some of this information
    may not be available or meaningful. If the calling process is not
    authorized to use this connection, an error is returned. This
    prevents unauthorized processes from gaining information about a
    connection.

    Responses from the TCP which may occur as a result of this call are
    detailed in section 2.4.

2.4  TCP TO USER MESSAGES

2.4.1  TYPE CODES

    All messages include a type code which identifies the type of user
    call to which the message applies. Types are:

    0 - General message, does not apply to a particular user call

    1 - Applies to OPEN

    2 - Applies to CLOSE
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 12
    3 - Applies to INTERRUPT

    10 - Applies to SEND

    20 - Applies to RECEIVE

    30 - Applies to STATUS

2.4.2  MESSAGE FORMAT [notional]

    All messages include the following three fields:

      Type code

      Local connection name

      Event code

   For message types 0-3 [General, Open, Close, Interrupt] only these
   three fields are necessary.

   For message type 10 [Send] one additional field is necessary:

      Buffer address

   For message type 20 [Receive] three additional fields are necessary:

      Buffer address

      Byte count

      End-of-letter flag

   For message type 30 [status] additional data might include;

      Local socket, foreign socket

      Send window [measures buffer space at foreign TCP]

      Receive window [measures buffer space at local TCP]

      Connection state [see section 4.3.6]

      Number of letters awaiting acknowledgment

      Number of letters awaiting receipt

      Retransmission timeout
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 13
2.4.3 EVENT CODES

   The event code specifies the particular event that the TCP wishes to
   communicate to the user.

   In addition to the event code, three flags may be useful to classify
   the event into major categories and facilitate event processing by
   the user:

      E flag: set if event is an error

      L/F flag: indicates whether event was generated by Local TCP, or
      Foreign TCP or network

      P/T flag: indicates whether the event is Permanent or Temporary
      [retry may succeed]

   Events are encoded into 8 bits with the high order bits set to
   indicate the state of the E, L/F, and P/T flags, respectively.

   Events specified so far are listed below with their codes and flag
   settings. A * means a flag does not apply or can take both values for
   this event. Additional events may be defined in the course of
   experimentation.

      0  0**  general success

      1  ELP  connection illegal for this process

      2  OF*  unspecified foreign socket has become bound

      3  ELP  connection not open

      4  ELT  no room for TCB

      5  ELT  foreign socket unspecified

      6  ELP  connection already open
         EFP  unacceptable SYN [or SYN/ACK] arrived at foreign
      TCP. Note: This is not a misprint, the local meaning is different
      from foreign.

      7  EFP  connection does not exist at foreign TCP

      8  EFT  foreign TCP inaccessible [may have subcases]

      9  ELT  retransmission timeout
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 14
      10 E*P  buffer flushed due to interrupt

      11 OF*  interrupt to user

      12 **P  connection closing

      13 E**  general error

      14 E*P  connection reset

   Possible events for each message type are as follows:

      Type 0[general]: 2,11,12,14

      Type 1[open]: 0,1,4,6,13

      Type 2[close]: 0,1,3,13

      Type 3[interrupt]: 0,1,3,5,7,8,9,12,13

      Type 10[send]: 0,1,3,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13

      Type 20[receive]: 0,1,3,10,12,13

      Type 30[status]: 0,1,13

   Note that events 6(foreign), 7, 8 are generated at the foreign TCP or
   in the network[s], and these same codes are used in the error field
   of the internet packet [see section 4.2.1].

3.  HIGHER LEVEL PROTOCOLS

3.1  INTRODUCTION

   It is envisioned that the TCP will be able to support higher level
   protocols efficiently. It should be easy to interface existing
   ARPANET protocols like TELNET and FTP to the TCP.

3.2  WELL KNOWN SOCKETS

   At some point, a set of well known 24 bit port numbers must be
   picked. The type of service associated with the well known ports
   might include:

      (a)  Logger

      (b)  FTP (File transfer protocol)
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 15
      (c)  RJE (Remote job entry)

      (d)  Host status

      (e)  TTY Test

      (f)  HELP - descriptive, interactive system documentation

   WE RESERVE WELL KNOWN SOCKET 0 (24 bits of 0) for global messages
   destined for a particular TCP but not related to any particular
   connection. We imagine that this socket would be used for unusual TCP
   synchronization (e.g. RESET ALL) or for testing purposes (e.g.
   sending letters to TRASHCAN or ECHO). This does not conflict with the
   usage that if a socket is 0, it is unspecified, since no user can
   SEND, CLOSE, or INTERRUPT on socket 0.

3.3  RECONNECTION PROTOCOL (RCP)

   Port identifiers fall into two categories: permanent and transient.
   For example, a Logger process is generally assigned a port identifier
   that is fixed and well known. Transient processes will in general
   have ID's which are dynamically assigned.

   In the distributed processing environment of the network, two
   processes that don't have well known port identifiers may often wish
   to communicate. This can be achieved with the help of a well known
   process using a reconnection protocol. Such a protocol is briefly
   outlined using the communication facilities provided by the TCP. It
   essentially provides a mechanism by which port identifiers are
   exchanged in order to establish a connection between a pair of
   sockets.

   Such a protoco1 can be used to achieve the dynamic establishment of
   new connections in order to have multiple processes solving a problem
   cooperatively, or to provide a user process access to a server
   process via a logger, when the logger's end of the connection can not
   be invisibly passed to the server process.

   A paper on this subject by R. Schantz [SCHA74] discusses some of the
   issues associated with reconnection, and some of the ideas contained
   therein went into the design of the protocol outlined below.

   In the ARPANET, a protocol was implemented which would allow a
   process to connect to a well known socket, thus making an implicit
   request for service, and then be switched to another socket so that
   the well known socket could be freed for use by others. Since sockets
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 16
   in our TCP are permitted to have connections with more than one
   foreign socket, this facility may not be explicitly needed (i.e.
   connections <A,B> and <A,C> are distinguishable).

   However. the well known socket may be in one network and the actual
   service socket(s) may be in another network (or at least in another
   TCP). Thus, the invisible switching of a connection from one port to
   another within a TCP may not be sufficient as an "Initial Connection
   Protocol". We imagine that a process wishes to use socket N1.T1.Q to
   access well known socket N2.T2.P. However, the process associated
   with socket N2.T2.P will actually start up a new process somewhere
   which will use N3.T3.S as its server socket. The N(i) and T(i) may be
   distinct or the same. The user will send to N2.T2.P the relevant user
   information such as user name, password, and account. The server will
   start up the server process and send to N1.T1.Q the actual service
   socket ldentif1er: N3.T3.S. The connection (N1.TI.Q,N2.T2.P) can then
   be closed, and the user can do a RECEIVE on (N1.T1.Q,N3.T3.S). The
   serving process can SEND on (N3.T3.S,N1.T1.Q). There are many
   variations on this scheme, some involving the user process doing a
   RECEIVE on a different socket (e.g. (N1.T1.X,U.U.U)) with the server
   doing SEND on (N3.T3.S,N1.T1.X).  Without showing all the detail of
   synchronization of sequence numbers and the like, we can illustrate
   the exchange as shown below.

      USER                             SERVER

                                       1. RECEIVE(N2.T2.P,U.U.U)

      1. SEND (N1.T1.Q,N2.T2.P)==>

                                   <== 2. SEND(N2.T2.P,N1.T1.Q)

                                          With "N3.T3.S" as data

      2. RECEIVE(N1.T1.Q,N2.T2.P)

      3. CLOSE(N1.T1.Q,N2.T2.P)==>

                                   <:= 3. CLOSE(N2.T2.P,N1.T1.Q)

      4. RECEIVE(N1.T1.Q,N3.T3.S)

                                   <== 4. SEND(N3.T3.S,N1.T1.Q)

   At this point, a connection is open between N1.T1.Q and N3.T3.S. A
   variation might be to have the user do an extra RECEIVE on
   (N1.T1.X,U.U.U) and have the data "N1.T1.X" be sent in the first user
   SEND. Then, the server can start up the real serving process and do a
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 17
   SEND on (N3.T3.S,N1.T1.X) without having to send the "N3.T3.S" data
   to the user. Or perhaps both server and receiver exchange this data,
   to assure security of the ultimate connection (i.e. some wild process
   might try to connect to N1.T1.X if it is merely RECEIVING on foreign
   socket U.U.U.).

   We do not propose any specific reconnection protocol here, but leave
   this to further deliberation, since it is really a user level
   protocol issue.

4.  TCP IMPLEMENTATION

4.1  INTRODUCTION

   Conceptually, the TCP is made up of several processes. Some of these
   deal with USER/TCP commands, and others with packets arriving from
   the network. The TCP also has an internal measurement facility which
   can be activated remotely.

   Any particular TCP could be viewed in a number of ways. It could be
   implemented as an independent process, servicing many user processes.
   It could be viewed as a set of re-entrant library routines which
   share a common interface to the local PSN, and common buffer storage.
   It could even be viewed as a set of processes, some handling the
   user, some the input of packets from the net, and some the output of
   packets to the net.

4.2  TCP DATA STRUCTURES

4.2.1  INTERNETWORK PACKET FONMAT

   8 bits: Internet information

      2 bits: Reserved for local PSN use

      2 bits: Header format (11 in binary)

      4 bits: Protocol version number

   8 bits: Header length in octets (32 is the current value)

   16 bits: Length of text in octets

   32 bits: Packet sequence number

   32 bits: Acknowledgment number (i.e. sequence number of next octet
   expected).
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 18
   16 bits: Window size (in octets)

   16 bits: Control Information

      Listed from high to low order:

      SYN: Request to synchronize sending sequence numbers

      ACK: There is a valid acknowledgment in the 32 bit ACK field

      FIN: Sender will stop SENDing and RECEIVEing on this connection

      DSN: The sender has stopped using sequence numbers and wants to
      initiate a new sequence number for sending.

      EOS: This packet is the end of a segment and therefore has a
      checksum in the 16 bit checksum field. If this bit is not set, the
      16 bit checksum field is to be ignored. The bit is usually set,
      but if fragmentation at a GATEWAY occurs, the packets preceding
      the last one will not have checksums, and the last packet will
      have the checksum for the entire original fragment (segment) as it
      was calculated by the sending TCP.

      EOL: This packet contains the last fragment of a letter. The EOS
      bit will always be set in this case.

      INT: The sender wants to INTERRUPT on this connection.

      XXX: six (6) unused control bits

      OD: three (3) bits of control dispatch:

         000: Null (the control octet contents should be ignored}

         001: Event Code is present in the control octet. These were
         defined in section 2.4.3.

         010: Special Functions

         011: Reject (codes as yet undefined)

         1XX: Unused

   8 bits: Control Data Octet

      If CD is 000 then this octet is to be ignored.
ToP   noToC   RFC0675 - Page 19
      If CD is 001, this octet contains event codes defined in section
      2.4.3

      If CD is 010, this octet contains a special function code as
      defined below:

         0: RESET all connections between Source and Destination TCPs

         l: RESET the specific connection referenced in this packet

         2: ECHO return packet to sender with the special function code
         ECHOR (Echo Reply).

         3: QUERY Query status of connection referenced in this packet

         4: STATUS Reply to QUERY with requested status.

         5: ECHOR Echo Reply

         6: TRASH Discard packet without acknowledgment

         >6: Unused

         Note: Special function packets not pertaining to a particular
         connection [RESET all, ECHO, ECHOR, and TRASH] are normally
         sent using socket zero as described in section 3.2.

      If CD is 01l, this octet contains an as yet undefined REJECT code.

      If CD is 1XX, this octet is undefined.

   4 bits: Length of destination network address in 4 bit units (current
   value is 1)

   4 bits: Destination network address

      1010-1111 are addresses of ARPANET, UCL, CYCLADES, NPL, CADC, and
      EPSS respectively.

   16 bits: Destination TCP address

   8 bits: Padding

   4 bits: length of source network address in 4 bit units (current
   value is 1)

   4 bits: source network address (as for destination address)


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