rfc793 (5 of 10)
ron at brl-adm.UUCP
ron at brl-adm.UUCP
Thu May 15 14:00:15 AEST 1986
September 1981
Transmission Control Protocol
Functional Specification
continue to try to establish the connection; the problem is now
reduced to the basic 3-way handshake of figure 7.
An interesting alternative case occurs when TCP A crashes and TCP B
tries to send data on what it thinks is a synchronized connection.
This is illustrated in figure 11. In this case, the data arriving at
TCP A from TCP B (line 2) is unacceptable because no such connection
exists, so TCP A sends a RST. The RST is acceptable so TCP B
processes it and aborts the connection.
TCP A TCP B
1. (CRASH) (send 300,receive 100)
2. (??) <-- <SEQ=300><ACK=100><DATA=10><CTL=ACK> <-- ESTABLISHED
3. --> <SEQ=100><CTL=RST> --> (ABORT!!)
Active Side Causes Half-Open Connection Discovery
Figure 11.
In figure 12, we find the two TCPs A and B with passive connections
waiting for SYN. An old duplicate arriving at TCP B (line 2) stirs B
into action. A SYN-ACK is returned (line 3) and causes TCP A to
generate a RST (the ACK in line 3 is not acceptable). TCP B accepts
the reset and returns to its passive LISTEN state.
TCP A TCP B
1. LISTEN LISTEN
2. ... <SEQ=Z><CTL=SYN> --> SYN-RECEIVED
3. (??) <-- <SEQ=X><ACK=Z+1><CTL=SYN,ACK> <-- SYN-RECEIVED
4. --> <SEQ=Z+1><CTL=RST> --> (return to LISTEN!)
5. LISTEN LISTEN
Old Duplicate SYN Initiates a Reset on two Passive Sockets
Figure 12.
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A variety of other cases are possible, all of which are accounted for
by the following rules for RST generation and processing.
Reset Generation
As a general rule, reset (RST) must be sent whenever a segment arrives
which apparently is not intended for the current connection. A reset
must not be sent if it is not clear that this is the case.
There are three groups of states:
1. If the connection does not exist (CLOSED) then a reset is sent
in response to any incoming segment except another reset. In
particular, SYNs addressed to a non-existent connection are rejected
by this means.
If the incoming segment has an ACK field, the reset takes its
sequence number from the ACK field of the segment, otherwise the
reset has sequence number zero and the ACK field is set to the sum
of the sequence number and segment length of the incoming segment.
The connection remains in the CLOSED state.
2. If the connection is in any non-synchronized state (LISTEN,
SYN-SENT, SYN-RECEIVED), and the incoming segment acknowledges
something not yet sent (the segment carries an unacceptable ACK), or
if an incoming segment has a security level or compartment which
does not exactly match the level and compartment requested for the
connection, a reset is sent.
If our SYN has not been acknowledged and the precedence level of the
incoming segment is higher than the precedence level requested then
either raise the local precedence level (if allowed by the user and
the system) or send a reset; or if the precedence level of the
incoming segment is lower than the precedence level requested then
continue as if the precedence matched exactly (if the remote TCP
cannot raise the precedence level to match ours this will be
detected in the next segment it sends, and the connection will be
terminated then). If our SYN has been acknowledged (perhaps in this
incoming segment) the precedence level of the incoming segment must
match the local precedence level exactly, if it does not a reset
must be sent.
If the incoming segment has an ACK field, the reset takes its
sequence number from the ACK field of the segment, otherwise the
reset has sequence number zero and the ACK field is set to the sum
of the sequence number and segment length of the incoming segment.
The connection remains in the same state.
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Functional Specification
3. If the connection is in a synchronized state (ESTABLISHED,
FIN-WAIT-1, FIN-WAIT-2, CLOSE-WAIT, CLOSING, LAST-ACK, TIME-WAIT),
any unacceptable segment (out of window sequence number or
unacceptible acknowledgment number) must elicit only an empty
acknowledgment segment containing the current send-sequence number
and an acknowledgment indicating the next sequence number expected
to be received, and the connection remains in the same state.
If an incoming segment has a security level, or compartment, or
precedence which does not exactly match the level, and compartment,
and precedence requested for the connection,a reset is sent and
connection goes to the CLOSED state. The reset takes its sequence
number from the ACK field of the incoming segment.
Reset Processing
In all states except SYN-SENT, all reset (RST) segments are validated
by checking their SEQ-fields. A reset is valid if its sequence number
is in the window. In the SYN-SENT state (a RST received in response
to an initial SYN), the RST is acceptable if the ACK field
acknowledges the SYN.
The receiver of a RST first validates it, then changes state. If the
receiver was in the LISTEN state, it ignores it. If the receiver was
in SYN-RECEIVED state and had previously been in the LISTEN state,
then the receiver returns to the LISTEN state, otherwise the receiver
aborts the connection and goes to the CLOSED state. If the receiver
was in any other state, it aborts the connection and advises the user
and goes to the CLOSED state.
3.5. Closing a Connection
CLOSE is an operation meaning "I have no more data to send." The
notion of closing a full-duplex connection is subject to ambiguous
interpretation, of course, since it may not be obvious how to treat
the receiving side of the connection. We have chosen to treat CLOSE
in a simplex fashion. The user who CLOSEs may continue to RECEIVE
until he is told that the other side has CLOSED also. Thus, a program
could initiate several SENDs followed by a CLOSE, and then continue to
RECEIVE until signaled that a RECEIVE failed because the other side
has CLOSED. We assume that the TCP will signal a user, even if no
RECEIVEs are outstanding, that the other side has closed, so the user
can terminate his side gracefully. A TCP will reliably deliver all
buffers SENT before the connection was CLOSED so a user who expects no
data in return need only wait to hear the connection was CLOSED
successfully to know that all his data was received at the destination
TCP. Users must keep reading connections they close for sending until
the TCP says no more data.
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Functional Specification
There are essentially three cases:
1) The user initiates by telling the TCP to CLOSE the connection
2) The remote TCP initiates by sending a FIN control signal
3) Both users CLOSE simultaneously
Case 1: Local user initiates the close
In this case, a FIN segment can be constructed and placed on the
outgoing segment queue. No further SENDs from the user will be
accepted by the TCP, and it enters the FIN-WAIT-1 state. RECEIVEs
are allowed in this state. All segments preceding and including FIN
will be retransmitted until acknowledged. When the other TCP has
both acknowledged the FIN and sent a FIN of its own, the first TCP
can ACK this FIN. Note that a TCP receiving a FIN will ACK but not
send its own FIN until its user has CLOSED the connection also.
Case 2: TCP receives a FIN from the network
If an unsolicited FIN arrives from the network, the receiving TCP
can ACK it and tell the user that the connection is closing. The
user will respond with a CLOSE, upon which the TCP can send a FIN to
the other TCP after sending any remaining data. The TCP then waits
until its own FIN is acknowledged whereupon it deletes the
connection. If an ACK is not forthcoming, after the user timeout
the connection is aborted and the user is told.
Case 3: both users close simultaneously
A simultaneous CLOSE by users at both ends of a connection causes
FIN segments to be exchanged. When all segments preceding the FINs
have been processed and acknowledged, each TCP can ACK the FIN it
has received. Both will, upon receiving these ACKs, delete the
connection.
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TCP A TCP B
1. ESTABLISHED ESTABLISHED
2. (Close)
FIN-WAIT-1 --> <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> --> CLOSE-WAIT
3. FIN-WAIT-2 <-- <SEQ=300><ACK=101><CTL=ACK> <-- CLOSE-WAIT
4. (Close)
TIME-WAIT <-- <SEQ=300><ACK=101><CTL=FIN,ACK> <-- LAST-ACK
5. TIME-WAIT --> <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> --> CLOSED
6. (2 MSL)
CLOSED
Normal Close Sequence
Figure 13.
TCP A TCP B
1. ESTABLISHED ESTABLISHED
2. (Close) (Close)
FIN-WAIT-1 --> <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> ... FIN-WAIT-1
<-- <SEQ=300><ACK=100><CTL=FIN,ACK> <--
... <SEQ=100><ACK=300><CTL=FIN,ACK> -->
3. CLOSING --> <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> ... CLOSING
<-- <SEQ=301><ACK=101><CTL=ACK> <--
... <SEQ=101><ACK=301><CTL=ACK> -->
4. TIME-WAIT TIME-WAIT
(2 MSL) (2 MSL)
CLOSED CLOSED
Simultaneous Close Sequence
Figure 14.
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Transmission Control Protocol
Functional Specification
3.6. Precedence and Security
The intent is that connection be allowed only between ports operating
with exactly the same security and compartment values and at the
higher of the precedence level requested by the two ports.
The precedence and security parameters used in TCP are exactly those
defined in the Internet Protocol (IP) [2]. Throughout this TCP
specification the term "security/compartment" is intended to indicate
the security parameters used in IP including security, compartment,
user group, and handling restriction.
A connection attempt with mismatched security/compartment values or a
lower precedence value must be rejected by sending a reset. Rejecting
a connection due to too low a precedence only occurs after an
acknowledgment of the SYN has been received.
Note that TCP modules which operate only at the default value of
precedence will still have to check the precedence of incoming
segments and possibly raise the precedence level they use on the
connection.
The security paramaters may be used even in a non-secure environment
(the values would indicate unclassified data), thus hosts in
non-secure environments must be prepared to receive the security
parameters, though they need not send them.
3.7. Data Communication
Once the connection is established data is communicated by the
exchange of segments. Because segments may be lost due to errors
(checksum test failure), or network congestion, TCP uses
retransmission (after a timeout) to ensure delivery of every segment.
Duplicate segments may arrive due to network or TCP retransmission.
As discussed in the section on sequence numbers the TCP performs
certain tests on the sequence and acknowledgment numbers in the
segments to verify their acceptability.
The sender of data keeps track of the next sequence number to use in
the variable SND.NXT. The receiver of data keeps track of the next
sequence number to expect in the variable RCV.NXT. The sender of data
keeps track of the oldest unacknowledged sequence number in the
variable SND.UNA. If the data flow is momentarily idle and all data
sent has been acknowledged then the three variables will be equal.
When the sender creates a segment and transmits it the sender advances
SND.NXT. When the receiver accepts a segment it advances RCV.NXT and
sends an acknowledgment. When the data sender receives an
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Functional Specification
acknowledgment it advances SND.UNA. The extent to which the values of
these variables differ is a measure of the delay in the communication.
The amount by which the variables are advanced is the length of the
data in the segment. Note that once in the ESTABLISHED state all
segments must carry current acknowledgment information.
The CLOSE user call implies a push function, as does the FIN control
flag in an incoming segment.
Retransmission Timeout
Because of the variability of the networks that compose an
internetwork system and the wide range of uses of TCP connections the
retransmission timeout must be dynamically determined. One procedure
for determining a retransmission time out is given here as an
illustration.
An Example Retransmission Timeout Procedure
Measure the elapsed time between sending a data octet with a
particular sequence number and receiving an acknowledgment that
covers that sequence number (segments sent do not have to match
segments received). This measured elapsed time is the Round Trip
Time (RTT). Next compute a Smoothed Round Trip Time (SRTT) as:
SRTT = ( ALPHA * SRTT ) + ((1-ALPHA) * RTT)
and based on this, compute the retransmission timeout (RTO) as:
RTO = min[UBOUND,max[LBOUND,(BETA*SRTT)]]
where UBOUND is an upper bound on the timeout (e.g., 1 minute),
LBOUND is a lower bound on the timeout (e.g., 1 second), ALPHA is
a smoothing factor (e.g., .8 to .9), and BETA is a delay variance
factor (e.g., 1.3 to 2.0).
The Communication of Urgent Information
The objective of the TCP urgent mechanism is to allow the sending user
to stimulate the receiving user to accept some urgent data and to
permit the receiving TCP to indicate to the receiving user when all
the currently known urgent data has been received by the user.
This mechanism permits a point in the data stream to be designated as
the end of urgent information. Whenever this point is in advance of
the receive sequence number (RCV.NXT) at the receiving TCP, that TCP
must tell the user to go into "urgent mode"; when the receive sequence
number catches up to the urgent pointer, the TCP must tell user to go
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Functional Specification
into "normal mode". If the urgent pointer is updated while the user
is in "urgent mode", the update will be invisible to the user.
The method employs a urgent field which is carried in all segments
transmitted. The URG control flag indicates that the urgent field is
meaningful and must be added to the segment sequence number to yield
the urgent pointer. The absence of this flag indicates that there is
no urgent data outstanding.
To send an urgent indication the user must also send at least one data
octet. If the sending user also indicates a push, timely delivery of
the urgent information to the destination process is enhanced.
Managing the Window
The window sent in each segment indicates the range of sequence
numbers the sender of the window (the data receiver) is currently
prepared to accept. There is an assumption that this is related to
the currently available data buffer space available for this
connection.
Indicating a large window encourages transmissions. If more data
arrives than can be accepted, it will be discarded. This will result
in excessive retransmissions, adding unnecessarily to the load on the
network and the TCPs. Indicating a small window may restrict the
transmission of data to the point of introducing a round trip delay
between each new segment transmitted.
The mechanisms provided allow a TCP to advertise a large window and to
subsequently advertise a much smaller window without having accepted
that much data. This, so called "shrinking the window," is strongly
discouraged. The robustness principle dictates that TCPs will not
shrink the window themselves, but will be prepared for such behavior
on the part of other TCPs.
The sending TCP must be prepared to accept from the user and send at
least one octet of new data even if the send window is zero. The
sending TCP must regularly retransmit to the receiving TCP even when
the window is zero. Two minutes is recommended for the retransmission
interval when the window is zero. This retransmission is essential to
guarantee that when either TCP has a zero window the re-opening of the
window will be reliably reported to the other.
When the receiving TCP has a zero window and a segment arrives it must
still send an acknowledgment showing its next expected sequence number
and current window (zero).
The sending TCP packages the data to be transmitted into segments
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Functional Specification
which fit the current window, and may repackage segments on the
retransmission queue. Such repackaging is not required, but may be
helpful.
In a connection with a one-way data flow, the window information will
be carried in acknowledgment segments that all have the same sequence
number so there will be no way to reorder them if they arrive out of
order. This is not a serious problem, but it will allow the window
information to be on occasion temporarily based on old reports from
the data receiver. A refinement to avoid this problem is to act on
the window information from segments that carry the highest
acknowledgment number (that is segments with acknowledgment number
equal or greater than the highest previously received).
The window management procedure has significant influence on the
communication performance. The following comments are suggestions to
implementers.
Window Management Suggestions
Allocating a very small window causes data to be transmitted in
many small segments when better performance is achieved using
fewer large segments.
One suggestion for avoiding small windows is for the receiver to
defer updating a window until the additional allocation is at
least X percent of the maximum allocation possible for the
connection (where X might be 20 to 40).
Another suggestion is for the sender to avoid sending small
segments by waiting until the window is large enough before
sending data. If the the user signals a push function then the
data must be sent even if it is a small segment.
Note that the acknowledgments should not be delayed or unnecessary
retransmissions will result. One strategy would be to send an
acknowledgment when a small segment arrives (with out updating the
window information), and then to send another acknowledgment with
new window information when the window is larger.
The segment sent to probe a zero window may also begin a break up
of transmitted data into smaller and smaller segments. If a
segment containing a single data octet sent to probe a zero window
is accepted, it consumes one octet of the window now available.
If the sending TCP simply sends as much as it can whenever the
window is non zero, the transmitted data will be broken into
alternating big and small segments. As time goes on, occasional
pauses in the receiver making window allocation available will
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Functional Specification
result in breaking the big segments into a small and not quite so
big pair. And after a while the data transmission will be in
mostly small segments.
The suggestion here is that the TCP implementations need to
actively attempt to combine small window allocations into larger
windows, since the mechanisms for managing the window tend to lead
to many small windows in the simplest minded implementations.
3.8. Interfaces
There are of course two interfaces of concern: the user/TCP interface
and the TCP/lower-level interface. We have a fairly elaborate model
of the user/TCP interface, but the interface to the lower level
protocol module is left unspecified here, since it will be specified
in detail by the specification of the lowel level protocol. For the
case that the lower level is IP we note some of the parameter values
that TCPs might use.
User/TCP Interface
The following functional description of user commands to the TCP is,
at best, fictional, since every operating system will have different
facilities. Consequently, we must warn readers that different TCP
implementations may have different user interfaces. However, all
TCPs must provide a certain minimum set of services to guarantee
that all TCP implementations can support the same protocol
hierarchy. This section specifies the functional interfaces
required of all TCP implementations.
TCP User Commands
The following sections functionally characterize a 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., SVCs, UUOs,
EMTs).
The user commands described below specify the basic functions the
TCP must perform to support interprocess communication.
Individual implementations must 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 or RECEIVE
issued by the user for a given connection.
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