Re: The List (of application-layer desired features)

- HTTP needs an XID so as to make it less dependent on octet stream
transports.  HTTP chunks, so there's no need for sub-channels, as long as
an XID can be used to dissociate reply order from request order.

- SCTP and similar should be implemented in user-space -- the OS/NIC should
know nothing more than how to classify packets for dispatch purposes.  UDP
obviously facilitates this and has the benefit that middle boxes deal with
it.

- Multi-homing and name resolution should be abstracted from the app, even
if they are handled within the app (in a library).

- The tricky things are a) security (SYN forgery type attacks), and b)
congestion control.  We know how to do (a) with low latency sometimes
(e.g., see TCP Fast Open).  (b) is trickier; read with care (has the IAB
said anything about this?).

- User/service authentication and session crypto are orthogonal to the
above: TLS and similar can be adapted to unreliable, unordered datagram
delivery, and they have been (DTLS).  This is not to say that we have
nothing to do in this space, just that it's mostly orthogonal to the
transport issues/wish-list.

Nico
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Received on Friday, 30 August 2013 16:50:26 UTC