`
`TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL
`
`DARPA INTERNET PROGRAM
`
`PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION
`
`September 1981
`
`prepared for
`
`Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
`Information Processing Techniques Office
`1400 Wilson Boulevard
`
`Arlington, Virginia
`
`22209
`
`by
`
`Information Sciences Institute
`
`University of Southern California
`4676 Admiralty Way
`Marina del Rey, California
`
`90291
`
`Page 1 of 92
`
`LG Electronics Exhibit 1017
`
`
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`Page 2 of 92
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`
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`September 1981
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`TABLE OF CONTENTS
`
`PREFACE ........................................................ iii
`
`1.
`
`INTRODUCTION ..................................................... l
`
`1.1 Motivation .................................................... 1
`
`1.2 Scope ......................................................... 2
`1.3 About This Document ........................................... 2
`1.4
`Interfaces .................................................... 3
`
`1.5 Operation ..................................................... 3
`
`2.
`
`PHILOSOPHY ....................................................... 7
`
`2.1 Elements of the Internetwork System ........................... 7
`2.2 Model of Operation ............................................ 7
`2.3 The Host Environment .......................................... 8
`2.4
`Interfaces .................................................... 9
`2.5 Relation to Other Protocols ................................... 9
`2.6 Reliable Communication ........................................ 9
`
`2.7 Connection Establishment and Clearing ........................ 10
`2.8 Data Communication ........................................... 12
`
`2.9 Precedence and Security ...................................... 13
`2.10 Robustness Principle ......................................... 13
`
`3.
`
`FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION ........................................ 15
`
`3.1 Header Format ................................................ 15
`
`3.2 Terminology .................................................. 19
`3.3 Sequence Numbers ............................................. 24
`3.4 Establishing a connection .................................... 30
`3.5 Closing a Connection ......................................... 37
`3.6 Precedence and Security ...................................... 40
`3.7 Data Communication ........................................... 40
`3.8
`Interfaces ................................................... 44
`
`3.9 Event Processing ............................................. 52
`
`GLOSSARY ............................................................ T9
`
`REFERENCES .......................................................... 85
`
`Page 3 of 92
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`[Page i]
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`Transmission Control Protocol
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`September 1981
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`[Page ii]
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`September 1981
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`Transmission Control Protocol
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`PREFACE
`
`This document describes the DoD Standard Transmission Control Protocol
`
`{TCP}. There have been nine earlier editions of the ARPA TCP
`specification on which this standard is based, and the present text
`draws heavily from them. There have been many contributors to this work
`both in terms of concepts and in terms of text. This edition clarifies
`several details and removes the end—of—letter buffer—size adjustments,
`and redescribes the letter mechanism as a push function.
`
`Jon Postel
`
`Editor
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`Page 5 of 92
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`[Page iii]
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`
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`Page 6 of 92
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`
`
`RFC:
`
`T93
`
`Replaces: RFC 761
`TENS:
`129, 124, 112, 81,
`55, 44, 40, 27, 21, 5
`
`TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL
`
`DARPA INTERNET PROGRAM
`PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION
`
`1.
`
`INTRODUCTION
`
`is intended for use as a highly
`(TCP)
`The Transmission Control Protocol
`reliable host—to—host protocol between hosts in packet—switched computer
`communication networks, and in interconnected systems of such networks.
`
`This document describes the functions to be performed by the
`Transmission Control Protocol,
`the program that implements it, and its
`interface to programs or users that require its services.
`
`1.1. Motivation
`
`Computer communication systems are playing an increasingly important
`role in military, government, and civilian environments. This
`document focuses its attention primarily on military computer
`communication requirements, especially robustness in the presence of
`communication unreliability and availability in the presence of
`congestion, but many of these problems are found in the civilian and
`government sector as well.
`
`As strategic and tactical computer communication networks are
`developed and deployed, it is essential to provide means of
`interconnecting them and to provide standard interprocess
`communication protocols which can support a broad range of
`the
`applications.
`In anticipation of the need for such standards,
`Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering has
`declared the Transmission Control Protocol
`(TCP) described herein to
`be a basis for DOD—wide inter—process communication protocol
`standardization.
`
`TCP is a connection—oriented, end—to—end reliable protocol designed to
`fit into a layered hierarchy of protocols which support multi—network
`applications.
`The TCP provides for reliable inter—process
`communication between pairs of processes in host computers attached to
`distinct but interconnected computer communication networks. Very few
`assumptions are made as to the reliability of the communication
`protocols below the TCP layer.
`TCP assumes it can obtain a simple,
`potentially unreliable datagram service from the lower level
`protocols.
`In principle,
`the TCP should be able to operate above a
`wide spectrum of communication systems ranging from.hard—wired
`connections to packet—switched or circuit—switched networks.
`
`[Page 1]
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`Introduction
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`September 1981
`
`TCP is based on concepts first described by Cerf and Kahn in [l].
`TCP fits into a layered protocol architecture just above a basic
`Internet Protocol
`[2] which provides a way for the TCP to send and
`receive variable—length segments of information enclosed in internet
`datagram "envelopes".
`The internet datagram.provides a means for
`addressing source and destination TCPs in different networks.
`The
`internet protocol also deals with any fragmentation or reassembly of
`the TCP segments required to achieve transport and delivery through
`multiple networks and interconnecting gateways.
`The internet protocol
`also carries information on the precedence, security classification
`and compartmentation of the TCP segments, so this information can be
`communicated end—to—end across multiple networks.
`
`The
`
`+ |+ |+ |+ |
`
`Protocol Layering
`
`
`higher—level
`
`TCP
`
`+—+—+—+—+
`
`internet protocol
`
`communication network
`
`Figure 1
`
`Much of this document is written in the context of TCP implementations
`which are co—resident with higher level protocols in the host
`computer.
`Some computer systems will be connected to networks via
`front—end computers which house the TCP and internet protocol layers,
`as well as network specific software.
`The TCP specification describes
`an interface to the higher level protocols which appears to be
`implementable even for the front—end case, as long as a suitable
`host—to—front end protocol is implemented.
`
`1.2.
`
`Scope
`
`The TCP is intended to provide a reliable process—to—process
`communication service in a multinetwork environment.
`The TCP is
`
`intended to be a host—to—host protocol in common use in multiple
`networks.
`
`1.3. About this Document
`
`This document represents a specification of the behavior required of
`any TCP implementation, both in its interactions with higher level
`protocols and in its interactions with other TCPs.
`The rest of this
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`[Page 2]
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`September 1981
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`Introduction
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`section offers a very brief view of the protocol interfaces and
`operation. Section 2 summarizes the philosophical basis for the TCP
`design. Section 3 offers both a detailed description of the actions
`required of TCP when various events occur {arrival of new segments,
`user calls, errors, etc.) and the details of the formats of TCP
`segments.
`
`1.4.
`
`Interfaces
`
`The TCP interfaces on one side to user or application processes and on
`the other side to a lower level protocol such as Internet Protocol.
`
`The interface between an application process and the TCP is
`illustrated in reasonable detail. This interface consists of a set of
`
`calls much like the calls an operating system.provides to an
`application process for manipulating files.
`For example,
`there are
`calls to open and close connections and to send and receive data on
`established connections.
`It is also expected that the TCP can
`asynchronously communicate with application programs. Although
`considerable freedom is permitted to TCP implementors to design
`interfaces which are appropriate to a particular operating system
`environment, a minimum functionality is required at the TCP/user
`interface for any valid implementation.
`
`The interface between TCP and lower level protocol is essentially
`unspecified except that it is assumed there is a mechanism.whereby the
`two levels can asynchronously pass information to each other.
`Typically, one expects the lower level protocol to specify this
`interface.
`TCP is designed to work in a very general environment of
`interconnected networks.
`The lower level protocol which is assumed
`throughout this document is the Internet Protocol
`[2].
`
`1.5. Operation
`
`the primary purpose of the TCP is to provide reliable,
`As noted above,
`securable logical circuit or connection service between pairs of
`processes.
`To provide this service on top of a less reliable internet
`communication system requires facilities in the following areas:
`
`Basic Data Transfer
`
`Reliability
`Flow Control
`
`Multiplexing
`Connections
`
`Precedence and Security
`
`The basic operation of the TCP in each of these areas is described in
`the following paragraphs.
`
`[Page 3]
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`Introduction
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`Basic Data Transfer:
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`September 1981
`
`The TCP is able to transfer a continuous stream of octets in each
`
`direction between its users by packaging some number of octets into
`segments for transmission through the internet system.
`In general,
`the TCPs decide when to block and forward data at their own
`convenience.
`
`Sometimes users need to be sure that all the data they have
`submitted to the TCP has been transmitted.
`For this purpose a push
`function is defined.
`To assure that data submitted to a TCP is
`
`actually transmitted the sending user indicates that it should be
`pushed through to the receiving user.
`A push causes the TCPs to
`promptly forward and deliver data up to that point to the receiver.
`The exact push point might not be visible to the receiving user and
`the push function does not supply a record boundary marker.
`
`Reliability:
`
`The TCP must recover from data that is damaged, lost, duplicated, or
`delivered out of order by the internet communication system. This
`is achieved by assigning a sequence number to each octet
`transmitted, and requiring a positive acknowledgment
`(ACK)
`receiving TCP.
`If the ACK is not received within a timeout
`interval,
`the data is retransmitted. At the receiver,
`the sequence
`numbers are used to correctly order segments that may be received
`out of order and to eliminate duplicates. Damage is handled by
`adding a checksum to each segment transmitted, checking it at the
`receiver, and discarding damaged segments.
`
`from the
`
`As long as the TCPs continue to function properly and the internet
`system does not become completely partitioned, no transmission
`errors will affect the correct delivery of data.
`TCP recovers from
`internet communication system errors.
`
`Flow Control:
`
`TCP provides a means for the receiver to govern the amount of data
`sent by the sender. This is achieved by returning a "window" with
`every ACK indicating a range of acceptable sequence numbers beyond
`the last segment successfully received.
`The window indicates an
`allowed number of octets that the sender may transmit before
`receiving further permission.
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`[Page 4]
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`Multiplexing:
`
`Transmission Control Protocol
`Introduction
`
`To allow for many processes within a single Host to use TCP
`communication facilities simultaneously,
`the TCP provides a set of
`addresses or ports within each host. Concatenated with the network
`and host addresses from the internet communication layer, this forms
`a socket. A.pair of sockets uniquely identifies each connection.
`That is, a socket may be simultaneously used in multiple
`connections.
`
`The binding of ports to processes is handled independently by each
`Host. However, it proves useful to attach frequently used processes
`(e.g., a "logger" or timesharing service) to fixed sockets which are
`made known to the public. These services can then be accessed
`through the known addresses. Establishing and learning the port
`addresses of other processes may involve more dynamic mechanisms.
`
`Connections:
`
`The reliability and flow control mechanisms described above require
`that TCPs initialize and maintain certain status information for
`
`including
`The combination of this information,
`each data stream.
`sockets, sequence numbers, and window sizes,
`is called a connection.
`Each connection is uniquely specified by a pair of sockets
`identifying its two sides.
`
`When two processes wish to communicate, their TCP's must first
`establish a connection (initialize the status information on each
`side). When their communication is complete,
`the connection is
`terminated or closed to free the resources for other uses.
`
`Since connections must be established between unreliable hosts and
`
`over the unreliable internet communication system, a handshake
`mechanism with clock—based sequence numbers is used to avoid
`erroneous initialization of connections.
`
`Precedence and Security:
`
`The users of TCP may indicate the security and precedence of their
`communication. Provision is made for default values to be used when
`these features are not needed.
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`[Page 5]
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`[Page 6]
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`Transmission Control Protocol
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`2.1. Elements of the Internetwork System
`
`2.
`
`PHILOSOPHY
`
`The internetwork environment consists of hosts connected to networks
`
`It is assumed here
`which are in turn interconnected via gateways.
`that the networks may be either local networks (e.g.,
`the ETHERNET) or
`large networks (e.g.,
`the ARPANET}, but in any case are based on
`packet switching technology.
`The active agents that produce and
`consume messages are processes. Various levels of protocols in the
`networks,
`the gateways, and the hosts support an interprocess
`communication system that provides two—way data flow on logical
`connections between process ports.
`
`The term packet is used generically here to mean the data of one
`transaction between a host and its network.
`The format of data blocks
`
`exchanged within the a network will generally not be of concern to us.
`
`Hosts are computers attached to a network, and from the communication
`network's point of view, are the sources and destinations of packets.
`Processes are viewed as the active elements in host computers (in
`accordance with the fairly common definition of a process as a program
`in execution).
`Even terminals and files or other I/O devices are
`viewed as communicating with each other through the use of processes.
`Thus, all 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.
`
`2. Model of Operation
`
`Processes transmit data by calling on the TCP and passing buffers of
`data as arguments.
`The TCP packages the data from these buffers into
`segments and calls on the internet module to transmit each segment to
`the destination TCP.
`The receiving TCP places the data from a segment
`into the receiving user's buffer and notifies the receiving user.
`The
`TCPs include control information in the segments which they use to
`ensure reliable ordered data transmission.
`
`The model of internet communication is that there is an internet
`
`protocol module associated with each TCP which provides an interface
`to the local network. This internet module packages TCP segments
`inside internet datagrams and routes these datagrams to a destination
`internet module or intermediate gateway.
`To transmit the datagram
`through the local network, it is embedded in a local network packet.
`
`The packet switches may perform further packaging, fragmentation, or
`
`[Page 7]
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`Philosophy
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`September 1981
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`other operations to achieve the delivery of the local packet to the
`destination internet module.
`
`the internet datagram is "unwrapped"
`At a gateway between networks,
`from its local packet and examined to determine through which network
`the internet datagram should travel next.
`The internet datagram is
`then "wrapped" in a local packet suitable to the next network and
`routed to the next gateway, or to the final destination.
`
`A gateway is permitted to break up an internet datagram into smaller
`internet datagram fragments if this is necessary for transmission
`through the next network.
`To do this,
`the gateway produces a set of
`internet datagrams; each carrying a fragment.
`Fragments may be
`The
`further broken into smaller fragments at subsequent gateways.
`internet datagram fragment format is designed so that the destination
`internet module can reassemble fragments into internet datagrams.
`
`A destination internet module unwraps the segment from the datagram
`(after reassembling the datagram, if necessary) and passes it to the
`destination TCP.
`
`This simple model of the operation glosses over many details. One
`important feature is the type of service. This provides information
`to the gateway (or internet module} to guide it in selecting the
`service parameters to be used in traversing the next network.
`Included in the type of service information is the precedence of the
`datagram. Datagrams may also carry security information to permit
`host and gateways that operate in multilevel secure environments to
`properly segregate datagrams for security considerations.
`
`2.3.
`
`The Host Environment
`
`The users
`The TCP is assumed to be a module in an operating system.
`The TCP
`access the TCP much like they would access the file system.
`to manage
`may call on other operating system functions, for example,
`data structures.
`The actual interface to the network is assumed to be
`
`The TCP does not call on the
`controlled by a device driver module.
`network device driver directly, but rather calls on the internet
`datagram protocol module which may in turn call on the device driver.
`
`The mechanisms of TCP do not preclude implementation of the TCP in a
`front—end processor. However,
`in such an implementation, a
`host—to—front—end protocol must provide the functionality to support
`the type of TCP—user interface described in this document.
`
`[Page 8]
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`September 1981
`
`2.4.
`
`Interfaces
`
`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`Philosophy
`
`The TCP/user interface provides for calls made by the user on the TCP
`to OPEN or CLOSE a connection,
`to SEND or RECEIVE data, or to obtain
`STATUS about a connection. These calls are like other calls from user
`
`programs on the operating system, for example,
`from, and close a file.
`
`the calls to open, read
`
`The TCP/internet interface provides calls to send and receive
`datagrams addressed to TCP modules in hosts anywhere in the internet
`system. These calls have parameters for passing the address,
`type of
`service, precedence, security, and other control information.
`
`2.5. Relation to Other Protocols
`
`The following diagram illustrates the place of the TCP in the protocol
`hierarchy:
`
`
`+ +
`+ +
`
`+
`
`+
`
`+ ————— +
`
`
`|Telnet|
`| FTP |
`IVoiceI
`+ +
`+ +
`+
`+
`
`...
`
`| Application Level
`|
`+ ————— +
`
`|
`|
`+ ————— +
`
`| TCP |
`+ ————— +
`
`|
`+ ————— +
`
`| RTP |
`+ ————— +
`
`|
`+ ————— +
`
`...
`
`| Host Level
`|
`+ ————— +
`
`+
`
`|
`+
`
`|
`|
`|
`
`
`+
`
`
`Internet Protocol & ICMP
`
`| Gateway Level
`+
`
`|
`
`
`Local Network Protocol
`
`
`+
`
`|
`+
`
`+
`
`|
`+
`
`Network Level
`
`Protocol Relationships
`
`Figure 2.
`
`It is expected that the TCP will be able to support higher level
`protocols efficiently.
`It should be easy to interface higher level
`protocols like the ARPANET Telnet or AUTODIN II THP to the TCP.
`
`2.6. Reliable Communication
`
`A stream of data sent on a TCP connection is delivered reliably and in
`order at the destination.
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`[Page 9]
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`Transmission Control Protocol
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`Philosophy
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`September 1981
`
`Transmission is made reliable via the use of sequence numbers and
`acknowledgments. Conceptually, each octet of data is assigned a
`sequence number.
`The sequence number of the first octet of data in a
`segment is transmitted with that segment and is called the segment
`sequence number.
`Segments also carry an acknowledgment number which
`is the sequence number of the next expected data octet of
`transmissions in the reverse direction. When the TCP transmits a
`
`segment containing data, it puts a copy on a retransmission queue and
`starts a timer; when the acknowledgment for that data is received,
`the
`segment is deleted from the queue.
`If the acknowledgment is not
`received before the timer runs out,
`the segment is retransmitted.
`
`An acknowledgment by TCP does not guarantee that the data has been
`delivered to the end user, but only that the receiving TCP has taken
`the responsibility to do so.
`
`To govern the flow of data between TCPs, a flow control mechanism is
`employed.
`The receiving TCP reports a "window" to the sending TCP.
`This window specifies the number of octets, starting with the
`acknowledgment number,
`that the receiving TCP is currently prepared to
`receive.
`
`2.7. Connection Establishment and Clearing
`
`the TCP
`To identify the separate data streams that a TCP may handle,
`provides a port identifier.
`Since port identifiers are selected
`independently by each TCP they might not be unique.
`To provide for
`unique addresses within each TCP, we concatenate an internet address
`identifying the TCP with a port identifier to create a socket which
`will be unique throughout all networks connected together.
`
`A connection is fully specified by the pair of sockets at the ends.
`local socket may participate in many connections to different foreign
`sockets.
`A connection can be used to carry data in both directions,
`that is, it is "full duplex".
`
`A
`
`TCPs are free to associate ports with processes however they choose.
`However, several basic concepts are necessary in any implementation.
`There must be well—known sockets which the TCP associates only with
`the "appropriate" processes by some means. We envision that processes
`may "own" ports, and that processes can initiate connections only on
`the ports they own.
`(Means for implementing ownership is a local
`issue, but we envision a Request Port user command, 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.)
`
`A connection is specified in the OPEN call by the local port and
`foreign socket arguments.
`In return,
`the TCP supplies a {short} local
`
`[Page 10]
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`September 1981
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`Philosophy
`
`connection name by which the user refers to the connection in
`subsequent calls. There are several things that must be remembered
`about a connection.
`To store this information we imagine that there
`is a data structure called a Transmission Control Block (TCB). One
`implementation strategy would have the local connection name be a
`pointer to the TCB for this connection.
`The OPEN call also specifies
`whether the connection establishment is to be actively pursued, or to
`be passively waited for.
`
`A passive OPEN request means that the process wants to accept incoming
`connection requests rather than attempting to initiate a connection.
`Often the process requesting a passive OPEN will accept a connection
`request from any caller.
`In this case a foreign socket of all zeros
`is used to denote an unspecified socket. Unspecified foreign sockets
`are allowed only on passive OPENS.
`
`A service process that wished to provide services for unknown other
`processes would issue a passive OPEN request with an unspecified
`foreign socket.
`Then a connection could be made with any process that
`requested a connection to this local socket.
`It would help if this
`local socket were known to be associated with this service.
`
`Well—known sockets are a convenient mechanism for a priori associating
`a socket address with a standard service.
`For instance,
`the
`"Telnet—Server" process is permanently assigned to a particular
`socket, and other sockets are reserved for File Transfer, Remote Job
`Entry, Text Generator, Echoer, and Sink processes {the last three
`being for test purposes).
`A socket address might be reserved for
`access to a "Look—Up" service which would return the specific socket
`at which a newly created service would be provided.
`The concept of a
`well—known socket is part of the TCP specification, but the assignment
`of sockets to services is outside this specification.
`(See [4].}
`
`Processes can issue passive OPENS and wait for matching active OPENs
`from other processes and be informed by the TCP when connections have
`been established.
`Two processes which issue active OPENS to each
`other at the same time will be correctly connected. This flexibility
`is critical for the support of distributed computing in which
`components act asynchronously with respect to each other.
`
`There are two principal cases for matching the sockets in the local
`passive OPENS and an foreign active OPENS.
`In the first case,
`the
`local passive OPENS has fully specified the foreign socket.
`In this
`case,
`the match must be exact.
`In the second case,
`the local passive
`OPENS has left the foreign socket unspecified.
`In this case, any
`foreign socket is acceptable as long as the local sockets match.
`Other possibilities include partially restricted matches.
`
`[Page 11]
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`Philosophy
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`September 1981
`
`If there are several pending passive OPENS {recorded in TCBs) with the
`same local socket, an foreign active OPEN will be matched to a TCB
`with the specific foreign socket in the foreign active OPEN, if such a
`TCB exists, before selecting a TCB with an unspecified foreign socket.
`
`The procedures to establish connections utilize the synchronize (SYN)
`control flag and involves an exchange of three messages. This
`exchange has been termed a three—way hand shake [3].
`
`A connection is initiated by the rendezvous of an arriving segment
`containing a SYN and a waiting TCB entry each created by a user OPEN
`command.
`The matching of local and foreign sockets determines when a
`connection has been initiated.
`The connection becomes "established"
`
`when sequence numbers have been synchronized in both directions.
`
`The clearing of a connection also involves the exchange of segments,
`in this case carrying the FIN control flag.
`
`2.8. Data Communication
`
`The data that flows on a connection may be thought of as a stream of
`octets.
`The sending user indicates in each SEND call whether the data
`in that call {and any preceeding calls) should be immediately pushed
`through to the receiving user by the setting of the PUSH flag.
`
`A sending TCP is allowed to collect data from the sending user and to
`send that data in segments at its own convenience, until the push
`function is signaled,
`then it must send all unsent data. When a
`receiving TCP sees the PUSH flag, it must not wait for more data from
`the sending TCP before passing the data to the receiving process.
`
`There is no necessary relationship between push functions and segment
`boundaries.
`The data in any particular segment may be the result of a
`single SEND call,
`in whole or part, or of multiple SEND calls.
`
`The purpose of push function and the PUSH flag is to push data through
`from the sending user to the receiving user.
`It does not provide a
`record service.
`
`There is a coupling between the push function and the use of buffers
`of data that cross the TCP/user interface. Each time a PUSH flag is
`associated with data placed into the receiving user's buffer,
`the
`buffer is returned to the user for processing even if the buffer is
`not filled.
`If data arrives that fills the user‘s buffer before a
`
`PUSH is seen,
`
`the data is passed to the user in buffer size units.
`
`TCP also provides a means to communicate to the receiver of data that
`at some point further along in the data stream than the receiver is
`
`[Page 12]
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`Page 18 of 92
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`
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`September 1981
`
`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`Philosophy
`
`TCP does not attempt to
`currently reading there is urgent data.
`define what the user specifically does upon being notified of pending
`urgent data, but the general notion is that the receiving process will
`take action to process the urgent data quickly.
`
`2.9.
`
`Precedence and Security
`
`The TCP makes use of the internet protocol type of service field and
`security option to provide precedence and security on a per connection
`basis to TCP users. Not all TCP modules will necessarily function in
`a multilevel secure environment;
`some may be limited to unclassified
`use only, and others may operate at only one security level and
`compartment. Consequently,
`some TCP implementations and services to
`users may be limited to a subset of the multilevel secure case.
`
`TCP modules which operate in a multilevel secure environment must
`properly mark outgoing segments with the security, compartment, and
`precedence.
`Such TCP modules must also provide to their users or
`higher level protocols such as Telnet or THP an interface to allow
`them to specify the desired security level, compartment, and
`precedence of connections.
`
`2.10. Robustness Principle
`
`TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness:
`conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from
`others.
`
`be
`
`Page 19 of 92
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`[Page 13]
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`
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`September 1981
`
`[Page 14]
`
`Page 20 of 92
`
`
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`September 1981
`
`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`3.
`
`FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION
`
`3.1. Header Format
`
`The Internet Protocol
`TCP segments are sent as internet datagrams.
`header carries several information fields,
`including the source and
`destination host addresses [2].
`A TCP header follows the internet
`header, supplying information specific to the TCP protocol. This
`division allows for the existence of host level protocols other than
`TCP.
`
`TCP Header Format
`
`3
`2
`l
`0
`9 0 l
`9 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
`0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
`
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`Destination Port
`|
`Source Port
`|
`
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`
`Sequence Number
`|
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`
`Acknowledgment Number
`|
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
` +—+—+—+———+—+—+—+
`
`IUIAIPIRISIFI
`Data |
`Window
`IRICISISIYIII
`Offsetl Reserved
`IGIKIHITININI
`|
`
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`
`Checksum
`|
`Urgent Pointer
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`Padding
`|
`Options
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
`
`| | |+ |
`
`|+ |+
`
`TCP Header Format
`
`Note that one tick mark represents one bit position.
`
`Figure 3.
`
`Source Port:
`
`16 bits
`
`The source port number.
`
`Destination Port:
`
`16 bits
`
`The destination port number.
`
`Page 21 of 92
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`[Page 15]
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`Transmission Control Protocol
`
`Functional Specification
`
`Sequence Number:
`
`32 bits
`
`September 1981
`
`(except
`The sequence number of the first data octet in this segment
`when SYN is present). If SYN is present the sequence number is the
`initial sequence number
`(ISN) and the first data octet is ISN+1.
`
`Acknowledgment Number:
`
`32 bits
`
`If the ACK control bit is set this field contains the value of the
`
`next sequence number the sender of the segment is expecting to
`receive. Once a connection is established this is always sent.
`
`Data Offset:
`
`4 bits
`
`The number of 32 bit words in the TCP Header. This indicates where
`
`The TCP header {even one including options) is an
`the data begins.
`integral number of 32 bits long.
`
`Reserved:
`
`6 bits
`
`Reserved for future use. Must be zero.
`
`Control Bits:
`
`6 bits (from left to right}:
`
`URG: Urgent Pointer field significant
`ACK: Acknowledgment field significant
`PSH:
`Push Function
`RST: Reset the connection
`
`SYN:
`FIN:
`
`Synchronize sequence numbers
`No more data from sender
`
`Window:
`
`16 bits
`
`The number of data octets beginning with the one indicated in the
`acknowledgment field which the sender of this segment is willing to
`accept.
`
`Checksum:
`
`16 bits
`
`The checksum field is the 16 bit one's complemen