TCP ext. to Historic: Moving the Undeployed TCP Extensions RFC 1072, RFC 1106, RFC 1110, RFC 1145, RFC 1146, RFC 1379, RFC 1644, and RFC 1693 to Historic Status
The paperwork that officially marks eight never-deployed TCP extension RFCs as Historic.
Eggert, L., "Moving the Undeployed TCP Extensions RFC 1072, RFC 1106, RFC 1110, RFC 1145, RFC 1146, RFC 1379, RFC 1644, and RFC 1693 to Historic Status", RFC 6247, DOI 10.17487/RFC6247, May 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6247>.
@misc{rfc6247,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 6247,
howpublished = {RFC 6247},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC6247},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6247},
author = {L. Eggert},
title = {{Moving the Undeployed TCP Extensions RFC 1072, RFC 1106, RFC 1110, RFC 1145, RFC 1146, RFC 1379, RFC 1644, and RFC 1693 to Historic Status}},
pagetotal = 4,
year = 2011,
month = may,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) L. Eggert
Request for Comments: 6247 Nokia
Obsoletes: 1072, 1106, 1110, 1145, May 2011
1146, 1379, 1644, 1693
Updates: 4614
Category: Informational
ISSN: 2070-1721
Moving the Undeployed TCP Extensions RFC 1072, RFC 1106,
RFC 1110, RFC 1145, RFC 1146, RFC 1379, RFC 1644, and RFC 1693 to
Historic Status
Abstract
This document reclassifies several TCP extensions that have never
seen widespread use to Historic status. The affected RFCs are RFC
1072, RFC 1106, RFC 1110, RFC 1145, RFC 1146, RFC 1379, RFC 1644, and
RFC 1693.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6247.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
1. Introduction
TCP has a long history, and several proposed TCP extensions have
never seen widespread deployment. Section 5 of the TCP "roadmap"
document [RFC4614] already classifies a number of TCP extensions as
Historic and describes the reasons for doing so, but it does not
instruct the RFC Editor and IANA to change the status of these RFCs
in the RFC database and the relevant IANA registries. The sole
purpose of this document is to do just that. Please refer to Section
5 of [RFC4614] for justification.
2. RFC Editor Considerations
Per this document, the RFC Editor has changed the status of the
following RFCs to Historic [RFC2026]:
o [RFC1072] on "TCP Extensions for Long-Delay Paths"
o [RFC1106] and [RFC1110] related to the "TCP Big Window and Nak
Options"
o [RFC1145] and [RFC1146] related to the "TCP Alternate Checksum
Options"
o [RFC1379] and [RFC1644] on "T/TCP -- Extensions for Transactions
Functional Specification"
o [RFC1693] on "An Extension to TCP : Partial Order Service"
3. IANA Considerations
IANA has marked the TCP options 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15
documented in [RFC1072], [RFC1146], [RFC1644], and [RFC1693] as
"obsolete" in the "TCP Option Kind Numbers" registry [TCPOPTREG],
with a reference to this RFC.
4. Security Considerations
As mentioned in [RFC4614], the TCP Extensions for Transactions
(T/TCP) [RFC1379][RFC1644] are reported to have security issues
[DEVIVO].
5. Acknowledgments
Lars Eggert is partly funded by [TRILOGY], a research project
supported by the European Commission under its Seventh Framework
Program.
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[RFC1072] Jacobson, V. and R. Braden, "TCP extensions for long-
delay paths", RFC 1072, October 1988.
[RFC1106] Fox, R., "TCP big window and NAK options", RFC 1106,
June 1989.
[RFC1110] McKenzie, A., "Problem with the TCP big window option",
RFC 1110, August 1989.
[RFC1145] Zweig, J. and C. Partridge, "TCP alternate checksum
options", RFC 1145, February 1990.
[RFC1146] Zweig, J. and C. Partridge, "TCP alternate checksum
options", RFC 1146, March 1990.
[RFC1379] Braden, B., "Extending TCP for Transactions --
Concepts", RFC 1379, November 1992.
[RFC1644] Braden, B., "T/TCP -- TCP Extensions for Transactions
Functional Specification", RFC 1644, July 1994.
[RFC1693] Connolly, T., Amer, P., and P. Conrad, "An Extension to
TCP : Partial Order Service", RFC 1693, November 1994.
[RFC4614] Duke, M., Braden, R., Eddy, W., and E. Blanton, "A
Roadmap for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
Specification Documents", RFC 4614, September 2006.
6.2. Informative References
[DEVIVO] de Vivo, M., de Vivo, G., Koeneke, R., and G. Isern,
"Internet Vulnerabilities Related to TCP/IP and T/TCP",
ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review (CCR), Vol.
29, No. 1, January 1999.
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
[TCPOPTREG] Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), "TCP Option
Kind Numbers", <http://www.iana.org>.
[TRILOGY] "Trilogy Project", <http://www.trilogy-project.org/>.
Author's Address
Lars Eggert
Nokia Research Center
P.O. Box 407
Nokia Group 00045
Finland
Phone: +358 50 48 24461
EMail: lars.eggert@nokia.com
URI: http://research.nokia.com/people/lars_eggert
AI ELI5
On this page
§1Why This Document Exists
TCP has a long history, and several proposed extensions never saw widespread deployment. Section 5 of the TCP roadmap, RFC 4614, already classifies these as Historic and gives the reasons. It does not, however, instruct the RFC Editor and IANA to update the RFC database and registries.
The sole purpose of RFC 6247 is to do that. For the justification, it points the reader back to Section 5 of RFC 4614.
A teacher had already said these old ideas were out of date, but nobody had updated the official list. This note updates it.
§2The RFCs Moved to Historic
The RFC Editor changed the status of these RFCs to Historic:
- RFC 1072 on TCP extensions for long-delay paths
- RFC 1106 and RFC 1110 on the TCP big window and Nak options
- RFC 1145 and RFC 1146 on TCP alternate checksum options
- RFC 1379 and RFC 1644 on T/TCP, extensions for transactions
- RFC 1693 on an extension to TCP providing partial order service
Eight old notes about TCP add-ons get a new stamp: old and not in use.
| RFCs | Extension |
|---|---|
| RFC 1072 | TCP extensions for long-delay paths |
| RFC 1106, RFC 1110 | TCP big window and Nak options |
| RFC 1145, RFC 1146 | TCP alternate checksum options |
| RFC 1379, RFC 1644 | T/TCP, extensions for transactions |
| RFC 1693 | Partial order service |
§3IANA Registry Changes
IANA marked TCP options 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 as obsolete in the TCP Option Kind Numbers registry. These options were documented in RFC 1072, RFC 1146, RFC 1644 and RFC 1693. The registry entries refer to RFC 6247.
The official list of numbered TCP add-ons now marks those slots as old.
§4Security Considerations
The only point made is a carry-over from RFC 4614: the TCP Extensions for Transactions (T/TCP, in RFC 1379 and RFC 1644) are reported to have security issues, citing a 1999 paper by de Vivo and co-authors.
One of the retired ideas, T/TCP, was reported to have safety problems.