RFC 0675
Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program
16 bits: Source TCP address 24 bits: Destination port address 24 bits: Source port address 16 bits: Checksum (if EOS bit is set) 4.2.2 TRANSMISSION CONTROL BLOCK It is highly likely that any implementation will include shared data structures among parts of the TCP and some asynchronous means of signaling users when letters have been delivered. One typical data structure is the Transmission Control Block (TCB) which is created and maintained during the lifetime of a given connection. The TCB contains the following information (field sizes are notional only and may vary from one implementation to another): 16 bits: Local connection name 48 bits: Local socket 48 bits: Foreign socket 16 bits: Receive window size in octets 32 bits: Receive left window edge (next sequence number expected) 16 bits: Receive packet buffer size of TCB (may be less than window) 16 bits: Send window size in octets 32 bits: Send left window edge (earliest unacknowledged octet) 32 bits: Next packet sequence number 16 bits: Send packet buffer size of TCB (may be less than window) 8 bits: Connection state E/C - 1 if TCP has been synchronized at least once (i.e. has been established, else O, meaning it is closed; this bit is reset after FINS are exchanged and the user has done a CLOSE). The bit is not reset if the connection is only desynchronized on send or receive or both directions.
SS - SYNCed on send side (if set) else desynchronized
SR - SYNCed on receive side (if set, else desynchronized)
16 bits: Special flags
S1 - SYN sent if set
S2 - SYN verified if set
R - SYN received if set
Y - FIN sent if set
C - CLOSE from local user received if set
U - Foreign socket unspecified if set
SDS - Send side DSN sent if set
SDV - Send side DSN verified if set
RDR - Receive side DSN received if set
Initially, all bits are off [no pun intended] (i.e. SS, SR, E/C, S1,
S2, R, F, C, SDS, SDV, RDR =0). When R is set, so is SR. When S1 and
S2 are both set, so is SS. SR is reset when RDR is set. SS is reset
when both SDS and SDV are set. These bits are used to keep track of
connection state and to aid in arriving packet processing (e.g. Can
sequence number be validated? Only if SR is set.).
16 bits: Retransmission timeout (in eighths of a second#]
16 bits: Head of Send buffer queue [buffers SENT from user to TCP,
but not packetized]
16 bits: Tail of Send buffer queue
16 bits: Pointer to last octet packetized in partially packetized
buffer (refers to the buffer at the head of the queue)
16 bits: Head of Send packet queue
16 bits: Tail of Send packet queue
16 bits: Head of Packetized buffer Queue
16 bits: Tail of Packetized buffer queue
16 bits: Head of Retransmit packet queue
16 bits: Tail of Retransmit packet queue
16 bits: Head of Receive buffer queue [queue of buffers given by user
to RECEIVE letters, but unfilled]
16 bits: Tail of Receive buffer queue
16 bits: Head of Receive packet queue
16 bits: Tail of receive packet queue
16 bits: Pointer to last contiguous receive packet
16 bits: Pointer to last octet filled in partly filled buffer
16 bits: Pointer to next octet to read from partly emptied packet
[Note: The above two pointers refer to the head of the receive
buffer and receive packet queues respectively]
16 bits: Forward TCB pointer
16 bits: Backward TCB pointer
4.3 CONNECTION MANAGEMENT
4.3.1 INITIAL SEQUENCE NUMBER SELECTION
The protocol places no restriction on a particular connection being
used over and over again. New instances of a connection will be
referred to as incarnations of the connection. The problem that
arises owing to this is, "how does the TCP identify duplicate packets
from previous incarnations of the connection?". This problem becomes
harmfully apparent if the connection is being opened and closed in
quick succession, or if the connection breaks with loss of memory and
is then reestablished.
The essence of the solution [TOML74] is that the initial sequence
number [ISN] must be chosen so that a particular sequence number can
never refer to an "o1d" octet, Once the connection is established the
sequencing mechanism provided by the TCP filters out duplicates.
For an association to be established or initialized, the two TCP's
must synchronize on each other's initial sequence numbers. Hence the
solution requires a suitable mechanism for picking an initial
sequence number [ISN], and a slightly involved handshake to exchange
the ISN's. A "three way handshake" is necessary because sequence numbers are not tied to a global clock in the network, and TCP's may have different mechanisms for picking the ISN's. The receiver of the first SYN has no way of knowing whether the packet was an old delayed one or not, unless it remembers the last sequence number used on the connection which is not always possible, and so it must ask the sender to verify this SYN. The "three way handshake" and the advantages of a "clock-driven" scheme are discussed in [TOML74]. More on the subject, and algorithms for implementing the clock-driven scheme can be found in [DALA74]. 4.3.2 ESTABLISHING A CONNECTION The "three way handshake" is essentially a unidirectional attempt to establish the connection, i.e. there is an initiator and a responder. The TCP's should however be able to establish the connection even if a simultaneous attempt is made by both TCP's to establish the connection. Simultaneous attempts are treated like "collisions" in "Aloha" systems and these conflicts are resolved into unidirectional attempts to establish the connection. This scheme was adopted because (i) Connections will normally have a passive and an active end, and so the mechanism should in most cases be as simple as possible. (ii) It is easy to implement as special cases do not have to be accounted for. The example below indicates what a three way handshake between TCP's A and B looks like A B --> <SEQ x><SYN> --> <-- <SEQ y><SYN, ACK x+l> <-- --> <SEQ x+1><ACK y+l><DATA BYTES> --> The receiver of a "SYN" is able to determine whether the "SYN" was real (and not an old duplicate) when a positive "ACK" is returned for the receiver's "SYN,ACK" in response to the "SYN". The sender of a "SYN" gets verification on receipt of a "SYN,ACK" whose "ACK" part references the sequence number proposed in the original "SYN" [pun intended]. If the TCP is in the state where it is waiting for a response to its SYN, but gets a SYN instead, then it always thinks this is a collision and goes into the state prior to having sent the
SYN, i.e. it forgets that it had sent a SYN. The TCP will try to
establish the connection again after some time, unless it has to
respond to an arriving SYN. Even if the wait times in the two TCPs
are the same, the varying delays in network transmission will usually
be adequate to avoid a collision on the next cycle of attempts to
send SYN.
When establishing a connection, the state of the TCP is represented
by 3 bits --
S1 S2 R
S1 = 1 -- SYN sent
S2 = 1 -- My SYN verified
R = 1 -- SYN received
Some examples of attempts to establish the connection are now shown.
The state of the connection is indicated when a change occurs. We
specifically do not show the cases in which connection
synchronization is carried out with packets containing both SYN and
data. We do this to simplify the explanation, but we do not rule out
an implementation which is capable of dealing with data arriving in
the first packet (it has to be stored temporarily without
acknowledgment or delivery to the user until the arriving SYN has
been verified).
The "three way handshake" now looks like --
A B
------------ ------------
S1 S2 R S1 S2 R
0 0 0 0 0 0
--> <SEQ x><SYN> -->
1 0 0 0 0 1
<-- <SEQ y><SYN, ACK x+l> <--
1 1 1 1 0 1
--> <SEQ x+1><ACK y+1>(DATA OCTETS) -->
1 1 1 1 1 1
The scenario for a simultaneous attempt to establish the connection
without the arrival of any delayed duplicates is --
A B
------------ ------------
S1 S2 R S1 S2 R
0 0 0 0 0 0
(M1) 1 0 0 --> <SEQ x><SYN> ...
(M2) 0 0 0 <-- <SEQ y><SYN) <-- 1 0 0
(M1) B returns no SYN sent --> 0 0 0
(M1) 1 0 0 --> <SEQ z><SYN> * --> 0 0 1
(M3) 1 1 1 <-- <SEQ y+1><SYN,ACK z+1> <-- 1 0 1
(M4) 1 1 1 --> <SEQ z+1><ACK y+1><DATA> --> 1 1 1
Note: "..." means that a message does not arrive, but is delayed
in the network. State changes are upon arrival or upon departure
of a given message, as the case may be. Packets containing the SYN
or INT or DSN bits implicitly contain a "dummy" data octet which
is never delivered to the user, but which causes the packet
sequence numbers to be incremented by 1 even if no real data is
sent. This permits the acknowledgment of these controls without
acknowledging receipt of any data which might also have been
carried in the packet. A packet containing a FIN bit has a dummy
octet following the last octet of data (if any) in the packet.
* Once in state 000 sender selects new ISN z when attempting to
establish the connection again.
4.3.3 HALF-OPEN CONNECTIONS
An established connection is said to be a "half-open" connection if
one of the TCP's has closed the connection at its end without the
knowledge of the other, or if the two ends of the connection have
become desynchronized owing to a crash that resulted in loss of
memory. Such connections will automatically become reset if an
attempt is made to send data in either direction. However, half-open
connections are expected to be unusual, and the recovery procedure is
somewhat involved.
If one end of the connection no longer exists, then any attempt by the other user to send any data on it will result in the sender receiving the event code "Connection does not exist at foreign TCP". Such an error message should indicate to the user process that something is wrong and it is expected to CLOSE the connection. Assume that two user processes A and B are communicating with one another when a crash occurs causing loss of memory to B's TCP. Depending on the operating system supporting B's TCP, it is likely that some error recovery mechanism exists. When the TCP is up again B is likely to start again from the beginning or from a recovery point. As a result B will probably try to OPEN the connection again or try to SEND on the connection it believes open. In the latter case 1t receives the error message "connection not open" from the local TCP. In an attempt to establish the connection B's TCP will send a packet containing SYN. A's TCP thinks that the connection is already established and so will respond with the error "unacceptable SYN (or SYN/ACK) arrived at foreign TCP". B's TCP knows that this refers to the SYN it just sent out, and so should reset the connection and inform the user process of this fact. It may happen that B is passive and only wants to receive data. In this case A's data will not reach B because the TCP at B thinks the connection is not established. As a result A'S TCP will timeout and send a QRY to B's TCP. B's TCP will send STATUS saying the connection is not synched. A's TCP will treat this as if an implicit CLOSE had occurred and tell the user process, A, that the connection is closing. A is expected to respond with a CLOSE command to his TCP. However, A's TCP does not send a FIN to B's TCP, since it would not be accepted anyway on the unsynced connection. Eventually A will try to reopen the connection or B will give up and CLOSE. If B CLOSES, B's TCP will simply delete the connection since it was not established as far as B's TCP is concerned. No message will be sent to A'S TCP as a result. 4.3.4 RESYNCHRONIZING A CONNECTION Details of resynchronization have not yet been specified since the need for this should be infrequent in the initial testing stages. 4.3.5 CLOSING A CONNECTION There are essentially three cases: a) The user initiates by telling the TCP to CLOSE the connection b) The remote TCP initiates by sending a FIN control signal
c) Both users CLOSE simultaneously
Two bits are used to maintain control over the closing of a
connection: these are called the "FIN sent" bit [F] and the "USER
Closed" bit, [C] respectively. The control procedure uses these two
bits to assure that the connection is properly closed.
Case 1: Local user initiates the close
In this case, both the F and C bits are initially zero, but the C
bit is set immediately upon receipt of the user call "CLOSE." When
the FIN is sent out by the TCP, the F bit is set. All pending
RECEIVES are terminated and the user is told that they have been
prematurely terminated ("connection closing"} without data.
Similarly, any pending SENDS are terminated with the same
response, "connection closing."
Several responses may arrive as the result of sending a FIN. The
one which is generally expected is a matching FIN. When this is
received, the TCB CAN BE ELIMINATED. If a "connection does not
exist at foreign TCP" message comes in response to the FIN, then
the TCB can likewise be eliminated. If no response is forthcoming,
or if "Foreign TCP inaccessible" arrives then the resolution is
moot. One might simply timeout and discard the TCB. Since the
local user wants to CLOSE anyway, this is probably satisfactory,
although it will leave a potential "half-open" connection at the
other side. We deal with half open connections in section 4.3.3.
When the acknowledging FIN arrives after the connection state bits
are set (F=1, C=1), then the TCB can be deleted.
Case 2: TCP receives a FIN from the network
First of all, a FIN must have a sequence number which lies in the
valid receive window. If not, it is discarded and the left window
edge is sent as acknowledgment. If the FIN can be processed, it is
handled (possibly out of order, since it is taken as an imperative
to shut down the connection). All pending RECEIVES and SENDS are
responded to by showing that they were terminated by the other
side's close request (i.e. "connection closing"). The user is also
told by an unsolicited event or signal that the connection has
been closed (in some systems, the user might have to request
STATUS to get this information). Finally, the TCP sends FIN in
response.
Thus, because a FIN arrived, a FIN is sent back, so the F bit is
set. However, the TCB stays around until the local user does a
CLOSE in acknowledgment of the unsolicited signal that the
connection has been closed by the other side. Thus, the C bit
remains unset until this happens. If the C and F bits go from (F=1
C=O) to (F=l, C=1), then the connection is closed and the TCB can
be removed.
Case 3: both users close simultaneously
If this happens, both connections will be in the (F=1, C=1) state.
When the FINs arrive, the connections w11i be shut down. If one
FIN fails to arrive, we have two choices. One is to insist on
acknowledgments for FINs, in which case the missing one will be
retransmitted. Another is merely to permit the half-open
connection to remain (we prefer this solution}. It can timeout
independently and go away after a while. If an attempt is made to
reestablish the connection, the initiator will discover the
existence of the open connection since an "inappropriate SYN
received" message will be sent by the TCP which holds the "half-
open" connection. The receiver of this message can tell the other
TCP to reset the connection. We cannot permit the holder of the
half-open connection to reset automatically on receipt of the SYN
since its receipt is not necessarily prima facie evidence of a
half open connection. (The SYN could be a delayed duplicate.)
4.3.6. CONNECTION STATE and its relation to USER and INCOMING CONTROL
REQUESTS
In order to formalize the action taken by the TCP when it receives
commands from the User, or Control information from the network, we
define a connection to be in one of 7 states at any instant. These
are known as the TCB Major States. Each Major State is simply a
convenient name for a particular setting or group of settings of the
state bits, as follows:
S1 S2 R U F C # name
- - - - - - 0 no TCB
0 0 0 0/1 0 0 1 unsync
1 0 0 0 0 0 2 SYN sent
1 0 1 0/1 0 0 3 SYN received
1 1 1 0 0 0 4 established
1 0/1 1 0/1 1 1 5 FIN wait
1 1 1 0 1 0 6 FIN received
The connection moves from state to state as shown below. The
transition from one state to another will be represented as
[X, Y]<cause><action>
which means that there is a transition from state X to state Y owing
to <cause>. The action taken by the TCP is specified as <action>. We
use this notation to give the important state transitions, often
simplifying the cause and action fields to take into account a number
of situations. Figure 1 illustrates these transitions in traditional
state diagram form. Section 4.4.6 and section 4.4.7 fully specify the
effect of all User commands and Control information arriving from the
network.
[0,l] <OPEN> <create TCB>
[1,2] <SEND,INTERRUPT, or collision timeout> <send SYN>
[1,3] <SYN arrives> <send SYN,ACK>
[1,0] <CLOSE> <remove TCB>
[2,1] <SYN arrives (collision)> <set timeout, forget SYNs>
[2,0] <CLOSE> <remove TCB>
[2,4] <appropriate SYN,ACK arrives> <send ACK>
[3,4] <appropriate ACK arrives> <none>
[3,1] <error arrives or timeout> <(forget SYN)>
[3,5] <CLOSE> <send FIN>
[4,5] <CLOSE> <send FIN>
[4,6] <appropriate FIN arrives> <send FIN, inform user>
[5,0] <FIN or error arrives, or timeout> <remove TCB>
[6,0] <CLOSE> <remove TCB>
4.4 STRUCTURE 0F THE TCP
4.4.l INTRODUCTION [See figure 2.1]
There are many possible implementations of the TCP. We offer one
conceptual framework in which to view the various algorithms that
make up the TCP design. In our concept, the TCP is written in two parts, an interrupt or signal driven part (consisting of four processes), and a reentrant library of subroutines or system calls which interface the user process to the TCP. The subroutines communicate with the interrupt part through shared data structures (TCB's, shared buffer queues etc.). The four processes are the Output Packet Handler which sends packets to the packet switch; the Packetizer which formats letters into internet packets; the Input Packet Handler which processes incoming packets; and the Reassembler which builds letters for users. The ultimate bottleneck is the pipe through which arriving and departing packets must travel. This is the Host/Packet Switch interface. The interrupt driven TCP shares among all TCB's its limited packet buffer resources for sending and receiving packets. From the standpoint of controlling buffer congestion, it appears better to TREAT INCOMING PACKETS WITH HIGHER PRIORITY THAN OUTGOING PACKETS. That is, packet buffers which can be released by copying their contents into user buffers clearly help to reduce congestion. Neither the packetizer nor the input packet handler should be allowed to take up all available packet buffer space; an analogous problem arises in the IMP in the allocation of store and forward, and reassembly buffer space. One policy is to permit neither contender more than, say, two-thirds of the space. The buffer allocation routines can enforce these limits and reject buffer requests as needed. Conceptually, the scheduler can monitor the amounts of storage dedicated to the input and output routines, and can force either to sleep if its buffer allocation exceeds the limit. As an example, we can consider what happens when a user executes a SEND call to the TCP service routines. The buffer containing the letter is placed on a SEND buffer queue associated with the user's TCB. A 'packetizer' process is awakened to look through all the TCB's for 'packetizing' work. The packetizer will keep a roving pointer through the TCB list which enables it to pick up new buffers from the TCB queue and packetize them into output buffers. The packetizer takes no more than one letter at a time from any single TCB. The packetizer attempts to maintain a non-empty queue of output packets so that the output handler will not fall idle waiting for the packetizing operation. However, since arriving packets compete with departing packets, care must be taken to prevent either class from occupying all of the shared packet buffer space. Similarly since the TCB's all compete for space in service to their connections, neither input nor output packet space should be dominated by any one TCB. When a packet is created, it is placed on a FIFO SEND packet queue associated with its origin TCB. The packetizer wakes the output handler and then continues to packetize a few more buffers, perhaps,
before going to sleep. The output handler is awakened either by a 'hungry' packet switch or by the packetizer; in either case, it uses a roving TCB pointer to select the next TCB for service. The send packet queue can be used as a 'work queue' for the output handler. After a packet has been sent, but usually before an ACK is returned, the output handler moves the packet to a retransmission queue associated with each TCB. Retransmission timeouts can refer to specific packets and the retransmission list can be searched for the specific packet. If an ACK is received, the retransmission entry can be removed from the retransmit queue. The send packet queue contains only packets waiting to be sent for the first time. INTERRUPT requests can remove entries in both the send packet queue and the retransmit packet queue. Since packets are never in more than one queue at a time, it appears possible for INT, FIN or RESET commands to remove packets from the receive, send, or retransmit packet queues with the assurance that an already issued signal to enter the reassembler, the packetizer or the output handler will not be confusing. Handling the INTERRUPT and CLOSE functions can however require some care to avoid confusing the scheduler, and the various processes. The scheduler must maintain status information for the processes. This information includes the current TCB being serviced. When an INTERRUPT is issued by a local process, the output queue of letters associated with the local port reference is to be deleted. The packetizer, for example, may however be working at that time on the same queue. As usual, simultaneous reading and writing of the TCB queue pointers must be inhibited through some sort of semaphore or lockout mechanism. When the packetizer wants to serve the next send buffer queue, it must lock out all other access to the queue, remove the head of the queue (assuming of course that there are enough buffers for packetization), advance the head of the queue, and then unlock access to the queue. If the packetizer keeps only a TCB pointer in a global place called CPTCB (current packetizer TCB address), and always uses the address in CPTCB to find the TCB in which to examine the send buffer queue, then removal of the output buffer queue does not require changes to any working storage belonging to the packetizer. Even more important, the arrival and processing of a RESET or CLOSE, which clears the system of a given TCB, can update the CPTCB pointer, as long as the removal does not occur while the packetizer is still working on the TCB.
Incoming packets are examined by the input packet handler. Here they are checked for valid connection sockets, and acknowledgments are processed, causing packets to be removed, possibly, from the SEND or RETRANSMIT packet queues as needed. As an example, consider the receipt of a valid FIN request on a particular TCB. If a FIN had not been sent before (i.e. F bit not set), then a FIN packet is constructed and sent after having cleared out the SEND buffer and SEND packet queues as well as the RETRANSMIT queue. Otherwise, if the F and C bits are both set, all queues are emptied and the TCB is returned to free storage. Packets which should be reassembled into letters and sent to users are queued by the input packet handler, on the receive packet queue, for processing by the reassembly process. The reassembler looks at its FIFO work queue and tries to move packets into user buffers which are queued up in an input buffer queue on each TCB. If a packet has arrived out of order, it can be queued for processing in the correct sequence. Each time a packet is moved into a user buffer, the left window edge of the receiving TCB is moved to the right so that outgoing packets can carry the correct ACK information. If the SEND buffer queue is empty, then the reassembler creates a packet to carry the ACK. As packets are moved 1nto buffers and they are filled, the buffers are dequeued from the RECEIVE buffer queue and passed to the user. The reassembler can also be awakened by the RECEIVE user call should it have a non-empty receive packet queue with an empty RECEIVE buffer queue. The awakened reassembler goes to work on each TCB, keeping a roving pointer, and sleeping if a cycle is made of all TCB's without finding any work. 4.4.2 INPUT PACKET HANDLER [See figure 2.2] The Input Packet Handler is awakened when a packet arrives from the network. It first verifies that the packet is for an existing TCB (i.e. the local and foreign socket numbers are matched with those of existing TCB's). If this fails, an error message is constructed and queued on the send packet queue of a dummy TCB. A signal is also sent to the output packet handler. Generally, things to be transmitted from the dummy TCB have a default retransmission timeout of zero, and will not be retransmitted. (We use the idea of a dummy TCB so that all packets containing errors, or RESET can be sent by the output packet handler, instead of having the originator of them interface to the net. These packets, it will be noticed, do not belong to any TCB).
The input packet handler looks out for control or error information
and acts appropriately. Section 4.4.7 discusses this in greater
detail, but as an example, if the incoming packet is a RESET request
of any kind (i.e. all connections from designated TCP or given
connection), and is believable, then the input packet handler clears
out the related TCB(s), empties the send and receive packet queues,
and prepares error returns for outstanding user SEND(s) and
RECEIVE(s) on each reset TCB. The TCB's are marked unused and
returned to storage. If the RESET refers to an unknown connection, it
is ignored.
Any ACK's contained in incoming packets are used to update the send
left window edge, and to remove the ACK'ed packets from the TCB
retransmit packet queue. If the packet being removed was the end of a
user buffer, then the buffer must be dequeued from the packetized
buffer queue, and the User informed. The packetizer is also signaled.
Only one signal, or one for each packet, will have to be sent,
depending on the scheduling scheme for the processes. See section
4.4.7 for a detailed discussion.
The packet sequence number, the current receive window size, and the
receive left window edge determine whether the packet lies within the
window or outside of it.
Let W = window size
S = size of sequence number space
L = left window edge
R = L+W-1 = right window edge
x = sequence number to be tested
For any sequence number, x, if
(R-x) mod S <= W
then x is within the window.
A packet should be rejected only if all of it lies outside the
window. This is easily tested by letting x be, first the packet
sequence number, and then the sum of packet sequence number and
packet text length, less one. If the packet lies outside the window,
and there are no packets waiting to be sent, then the input packet
handler should construct a dummy ACK and queue it for output on the
send packet queue, and signal the output packet handler. Successfully received packets are placed on the receive packet queue in the appropriate sequence order, and the reassembler signaled. The packet window check can not be made if the associated TCB is not in the 'established' state, so care must be taken to check for control and TCB state before doing the window check. 4.4.3 REASSEMBLER [See figure 2.3] The Reassembler process is activated by both the Input Packet Handler and the RECEIVE user call. While the reassembler is asleep, if multiple signals arrive, all but one can be discarded. This is important as the reassembler does not know the source of the signal. This is so in order that "dangling" signals from work in TCB's that have subsequently been removed don't confuse it. Each signal simply means that there may be work to be done. If the reassembler is awake when a signal arrives, it may be necessary to put 1t in a "hyperawake" state so that even if the reassembler tries to quit, the scheduler will run it one more time. When the reassembler is awakened it looks at the receive packet queue for each TCB. If there are some packets there then it sees whether the RECEIVE buffer queue is empty. If it is then the reassembler gives up on this TCB and goes on to the next one, otherwise if the first packet matches the left window edge, then the packet can be moved into the User's buffer. The reassembler keeps transferring packets into the User's buffer until the letter is completely transferred, or something causes it to stop. Note that a buffer may be partly filled and then a sequence 'hole' is encountered in the receive packet queue. The reassembler must mark progress so that the buffer can be filled up starting at the right place when the 'hole' is filled. Similarly a packet might be only partially emptied when a buffer is filled, so progress in the packet must be marked. If a letter was successfully transferred to a User buffer then the reassembler signals the User that a letter has arrived and dequeues the buffer associated with it from the TCB RECEIVE buffer queue. If the buffer is filled then the User is signaled and the buffer dequeued as before. The event code indicates whether the buffer contains all or part of a letter, as described in section 2.4. In every case when a packet is delivered to a buffer, the receive left window edge is updated, and the packetizer is signaled. This updating must take account of the extra octet included in the sequencing for certain control functions [SYN, INT, FIN, DSN]. If the send packet queue is empty then the reassembler must create a packet to carry the ACK, and place it on the send packet queue.
Note that the reassembler never works on a TCB for more than one User buffer's worth of time, in order to give all TCB's equal service. Scheduling of the reassembler is a big issue, but perhaps running to completion will be satisfactory, or else it can be time sliced. In the latter case it will continue from where it left off, but a new signal may have arrived producing some possible work. This work will be processed as part of the old incomplete signal, and so some wasteful processing may occur when the reassembler wakes up again. This is the general problem of trying to implement a protocol that is fundamentally asynchronous, but at least it is immune to harmful race-conditions. E.g. if we were to have the reassembler 'remove' the signal that caused it to wake up, just before it went to sleep (in order that new arriving ones were discarded) then a new signal may arrive at a critical time causing 1t not to be recognized; thus leaving some work pending, and this may result in a deadlock [see previous comments on "hyperawake" state]. 4.4.4 PACKETIZER [See figure 2.4] The Packetizer process gets work from both the Input Packet Handler and the SEND user call. The signal from the SEND user call indicates that there is something new to send, while the one from the input packet handler indicates that more TCP buffers may be available from delivered packets. This latter signal is to prevent deadlocks in certain kind of scheduling schemes. We assume the same treatment of signals as discussed in section 4.4.3. When the packetizer is awakened it looks at the SEND buffer queue for each TCB. If there is a new or partial letter awaiting packetization, it tries to packetize the letter, TCB buffer and window permitting. It packetizes no more than one letter for a TCB before servicing another TCB. For every packet produced it signals the output packet handler (to prevent deadlock in a time sliced scheduling scheme). If a 'run till completion' scheme is used then one signal only need be produced, the first time a packet is produced since awakening. If packetization is not possible the packetizer goes on to the next TCB. If a partial buffer was transferred then the packetizer must mark progress in the SEND buffer queue. Completely packetized buffers are dequeued from the SEND buffer queue, and placed on a Packetized buffer queue, so that the buffer can be returned to the user when an ACK for the last bit is received. When the packetizer packetizes a letter it must see whether it is the first piece of data being sent on the connection, in which case it must include the SYN bit. Some implementations may not permit data to be sent with SYN and others may discard any data received with SYN.
The Packetizer goes to sleep if it finds no more work at any TCB. 4.4.5 OUTPUT PACKET HANDLER [see figure 2.5] When activated by the packetizer, or the input packet handler, or some of the user call routines, the Output Packet Handler attempts to transmit packets on the net (may involve going through some other network interface program). It looks at the TCB's in turn, transmitting some packets from the send packet queue. These are dequeued and put on the retransmit queue along with the time when they should be retransmitted. All data packets that are transmitted have the latest receive left window edge in the ACK field. Error and control messages may have no ACK [ACK bit off], or set the ACK field to refer to a received packet's sequence number. The RETRANSMIT PROCESS: This process can either be viewed as a separate process, or as part of the output packet handler. Its implementation can vary; it could either perform its function, by being woken up at regular intervals, or when the retransmission time occurs for every packet put on the retransmit queue. In the first case the retransmit queue for each TCB is examined to see if there is anything to retransmit. If there is, a packet is placed on the send packet queue of the corresponding TCB. The output packet handler is also signaled. Another "demon" process monitors all user Send buffers and retransmittable control messages sent on each connection, but not yet acknowledged. If the global retransmission timeout is exceeded for any of these, the User is notified and he may choose to continue or close the connection. A QUERY packet may also be sent to ascertain the state of the connection [this facilitates recovery from half open connections as described in section 4.3.3]. 4.4.6 USER CALL PROCESSING OPEN [See figure 3.1] 1. If the process calling does not own the specified local socket, return with <type 1><ELP 1 "connection illegal for this process">. 2. If no foreign socket is specified, construct a new TCB and add it to the list of existing TCB's. Select a new local connection name and return it along with <type 1><OLP 0 "success">. If there is no room for the TCB, respond with <type 1><ELT 4 "No room for TCB">.
3. If a foreign socket is specified, verify that there is no
existing TCB with the same <local socket, foreign socket> pair
(i.e. same connection), otherwise return <type l><ELP 6
"connection already open">. If there is no TCB space, return as in
(2), otherwise, create the TCB and link it with the others,
returning a local connection name with the success event code.
Note: if a TCB is created, be sure to copy the timeout parameter
into it, and set the "U" bit to 0 if a foreign socket is
specified, else set U to 1 (to show unspecified foreign socket).
SEND [see figure 3.2]
1. Search for TCB with local connection name specified. If none
found, return <type 10><ELP 3 "connection not open">
2. If TCB is found, check foreign socket specification. If not set
(i.e. U = 1 in TCB), return <type 10><ELT 5 "foreign socket
unspecified">. If the connection is in the "closing" state (i.e.
state 5 or 6), return <type 3><ELP 12 "connection closing"> and do
not process the buffer.
3. Put the buffer on the Send buffer queue and signal the
packetizer that there is work to do.
INTERRUPT [see figure 3.3]
1. Validate existence of the referenced connection, sending out
error messages of the form <type 3><ELP 3 "connection not open">
or <type 3><ELT 5 "foreign socket unspecified"> as appropriate. If
the local connection refers to a connection not accessible to the
process interrupting, send <type 3><ELP 1 "connection illegal for
this process">.
2. If the connection is in the "closing" state (i.e. states 5 or
6), return <type 3><ELT 12 "connection closing"> and do not send
an INT packet to the destination.
3. Any pending SEND buffers should be returned with <type 10><ELP
10 "buffer flushed due to interrupt">. An INT packet should be
created and placed on the output packet queue, and the output
packet handler should be signaled.
RECEIVE [See figure 3.4]
1. If the caller does not have access to the referenced local
connection name, return <type 20><ELP 1 "connection illegal for
this process">. And if the connection is not open, return <type
20><ELP 3 "connection not open"). If the connection is in the
closing state (e.g. a FIN has been received or a user CLOSE is
being processed), return <type 20><ELP 12 "connection closing">.
2. Otherwise, put the buffer on the receive buffer queue and
signal the reassembler that buffer space is available.
CLOSE [See figure 3.5]
1. If the connection is not accessible to the caller, return <type
2><ELP 1 "connection illegal for this process">. If there is no
such connection respond with <type 2><ELP 3 "connection not
open">.
2. If the R bit is 0 (i.e. connection is in state 1 or 2), simply
remove the TCB.
3. If the R bit is set and the F bit is set, then remove the TCB.
4. Otherwise, if the R bit is set, but F is 0 (i.e. states 3 or
4), return all buffers to the User with <type x><ELP 12
"connection closing">, clear all output and input packet queues
for this connection, create a FIN packet, and signal the output
packet handler. Set the C and F bits to show this action.
STATUS [See figure 3.6]
1. If the connection is illegal for the caller to access, send
<type 30><ELP 1 "connection illegal for this process">.
2. If the connection does not exist, return <type 30><ELP 3
"connection not open">.
3. Otherwise set status information from the TCB and return it via
<type 30><O-T 0 "status data...">.
4.4.7 NETWORK CONTROL PROCESSING
The Input Packet Handler examines the header to see if there is any
control information or error codes present. We do not discuss the
action taken for various special function codes, as it is often
implementation dependent, but we describe those that affect the state
of the connection. After initial screening by the IPC [see section
4.4.2 and figure 2.2], control and error packets are processed as
shown in figures 4.l-4.7. [ACK and data processing is done within the
IPC.]
4.4.8 TCP ERROR HANDLING Error messages have CD=001 and do not carry user data. Depending on the error, zero or more octets of error information will be carried in the packet text field. We explicitly assume that this data is restricted in length so as to fall below the GATEWAY fragmentation threshold (probably 512 bits of data and header). Errors generally refer to specific connections, so the source and destination socket identifiers are relevant here. The ACK field of an error packet contains the sequence number of the packet that caused the error, and the ACK bit is off. [RESET and STATUS special functions may use the ACK field in the same way.] This allows the receiver of an error message to determine which packet caused the error. Error packets are not ACK'ed or retransmitted. 4.5. BUFFER AND WINDOW ALLOCATION 4.5.1 INTRODUCTION The TCP manages buffer and window allocation on connections for two main purposes: equitably sharing limited TCP buffer space among all connections (multiplexing function), and limiting attempts to send packets, so that the receiver is not swamped (flow control function). For further details on the operation and advantages of the window mechanism see CEKA74. Good allocation schemes are one of the hardest problems of TCP design, and much experimentation must be done to develop efficient and effective algorithms. Hence the following suggestions are merely initial thoughts. Different implementations are encouraged with the hope that results can be compared and better schemes developed. Several of the measurements discussed in a later section are aimed at providing information on the performance of allocation mechanisms. This should aid in determining significant parameters and evaluating alternate schemes. 4.5.2 The SEND Side The window is determined by the receiver. Currently the sender has no control over the SEND window size, and never transmits beyond the right window edge. There exists the possibility of specifying two more special function codes so that the sender can request the receiver to INCREASE or DECREASE the window size, without specifying by how much. The receiver, of course, needn't satisfy this request.
Buffers must be allocated for outgoing packets from a TCP buffer pool. The TCP may not be willing to allocate a full window's worth of buffers, so buffer space for a connection may be less than what the window would permit. No deadlocks are possible even if there is insufficient buffer or window space for one letter, since the receiver will ACK parts of letters as they are put into the user's buffer, thus advancing the window and freeing buffers for the remainder of the letter. It is not mandatory that the TCP buffer outgoing packets until acknowledgments for them are received, since it is possible to reconstruct them from the actual letters sent by the user. However, for purposes of retransmission and processing efficiency it is very convenient to do. 4.5.3 The RECEIVE Side At the receiving side there are two requirements for buffering: (l) Rate Discrepancy: If the sender produces data much faster or much slower than the receiver consumes it, little buffering is needed to maintain the receiver at near maximum rate of operation. Simple queuing analysis indicates that when the production and consumption (arrival and service) rates are similar in magnitude, more buffering is needed to reduce the effect of stochastic or bursty arrivals and to keep the receiver busy. (2) Disorderly Arrivals: When packets arrive out of order, they must be buffered until the missing packets arrive so that packets (or letters) are delivered in sequence. We do not advocate the philosophy that they be discarded, unless they have to be, otherwise a poor effective bandwidth may be observed. Path length, packet size, traffic level, routing, timeouts, window size, and other factors affect the amount by which packets come out of order. This is expected to be a major area of investigation. The considerations for choosing an appropriate window are as follows: Suppose that the receiver knows the sender's retransmission timeout, also, that the receiver's acceptance rate is 'U' bits/sec, and the window size is 'W' bits. Ignoring line errors and other traffic, the sender transmits at a rate between W/K and the maximum line rate (the sender can send a window's worth of data each timeout period).
If W/K is greater than U, the difference must be retransmissions
which is undesirable, so the window should be reduced to W', such
that W'/K is approximately equal to U. This may mean that the entire
bandwidth of the transmission channel is not being used, but it is
the fastest rate at which the receiver is accepting data, and the
line capacity is free for other users. This is exactly the same case
where the rates of the sender and receiver were almost equal, and so
more buffering is needed. Thus we see that line utilization and
retransmissions can be traded off against buffering.
If the receiver does not accept data fast enough (by not performing
sufficient RECEIVES) the sender may continue retransmitting since
unaccepted data will not be ACK'ed. In this case the receiver should
reduce the window size to "throttle" the sender and inhibit useless
retransmissions.
Receiver window control:
If the user at the receiving side is not accepting data, the
window should be reduced to zero. In particular, if all TCP
incoming packet buffers for a connection are filled with received
packets, the window must go to zero to prevent retransmissions
until the user accepts some packets.
Short term flow control:
Let F = the number of user receive buffers filled
B = the total user receive buffers
W = the long-term or nominal window size
W' = the window size returned to the sender
then a possible value for W' is
W' = W*[1-F/B]**a
The value of 'a' should be greater than one, in order to shut the
window faster as buffers run out. The values of W' and F actually
used could be averages of recent values, in order to get smooth
control. Note that W' is constantly being recomputed, while the
value of W, which sets the upper limit of W', only changes slowly
in response to other factors.
The value of W can be large (up to half the sequence number space)
to allow for good throughput on high delay channels. The sender
needn't allocate W worth of buffer space anyway. The long-term
variation of W to match flow requirements may be a separate
question
This short-term mechanism for flow control allows some buffering in
the two TCP's at either end, (as much as they are willing), and the
rest in the user process at the send side where the data is being
created. Hence the cost of buffering to smooth out bursty traffic is
borne partly by the TCP's, and partly by the user at the send side.
None of it is borne by the communication subnet.
5. NETWORK MEASUREMENT PLANS FOR TCP
5.1 USERLEVEL DIAGNOSTICS
We have in mind a program which will exercise a given TCP, causing it
to cycle through a number of states; opening, closing, and
transmitting on a variety of connections. This program will collect
statistics and will generally try to detect deviation from TCP
functional specifications. Clearly there will have to be a copy of
this program both at the local site being tested and some site which
has a certified TCP. So we will have to produce a specification for
this user level diagnostic program also.
There needs to be a master and a slave side to all this so the master
can tell the slave what's going wrong with the test.
5.2 SINGLE CONNECTION MEASUREMENTS
Round trip delay times
Time from moment the packet is sent by the TCP to the time that
the ACK is received by the TCP.
Time from the moment the USER issues the SEND to the time that the
USER gets the successful return code.
Note: packet size should be used to distinguish from one set of
round trip times and another.
Network destination, and current configuration and traffic load
may also be issues of importance that must be taken into
account.
What if the destination TCP decides to queue up ACKs and send a
single ACK after a while? How does this affect round trip
statistics?
What about out of order arrivals and the bunched ACK for all of
them?
The histogram of round trip times include retransmission times
and these must be taken into account in the analysis and
evaluation of the collected data.
Packet size statistics
Histogram of packet length in both directions on the full duplex
connection.
Histogram of letter size in both directions.
Measure of disorderly arrival
Distance from the first octet of arriving packet to the left
window edge. A histogram of this measure gives an idea of the out
of order nature of packet arrivals. It will be 0 for packets
arriving in order.
Retransmission Histogram
Effective throughput
This is the effective rate at which the left edge of the window
advances. The time interval over which the measure is made is a
parameter of the measurement experiment. The shorter the interval,
the more bursty we would expect the measure to be.
It is possible to measure effective data throughput in both
directions from one TCP by observing the rate at which the left
window edge is moving on ACK sent and received for the two
windows.
Since throughput is largely dependent upon buffer allocation and
window size, we must record these values also. Varying window for
a fixed file transmission might be a good way to discover the
sensitivity of throughput to window size.
Output measurement
The throughput measurement is for data only, but includes
retransmission. The output rate should include all octets
transmitted and will give a measure of retransmission overhead.
Output rate also includes packet format overhead octets as well as
data.
(next page on part 3)
