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LTP Fragmentation
draft-templin-dtn-ltpfrag-07

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Author Fred Templin
Last updated 2022-01-04
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draft-templin-dtn-ltpfrag-07
Network Working Group                                 F. L. Templin, Ed.
Internet-Draft                              Boeing Research & Technology
Intended status: Informational                            4 January 2022
Expires: 8 July 2022

                           LTP Fragmentation
                      draft-templin-dtn-ltpfrag-07

Abstract

   The Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) provides a reliable
   datagram convergence layer for the Delay/Disruption Tolerant
   Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol.  In common practice, LTP is often
   configured over UDP/IP sockets and inherits its maximum segment size
   from the maximum-sized UDP/IP datagram, however when this size
   exceeds the maximum IP packet size for the path a service known as IP
   fragmentation must be employed.  This document discusses LTP
   interactions with IP fragmentation and mitigations for managing the
   amount of IP fragmentation employed.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 8 July 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components

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   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  IP Fragmentation Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  LTP Fragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Beyond "sendmmsg()" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  LTP Performance Enhancement Using GSO/GRO . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.  LTP and GSO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.2.  LTP and GRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.3.  LTP GSO/GRO Over OMNI Interfaces  . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.4.  IP Parcels  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   7.  Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Appendix A.  IPv4/IPv6 Protocol Considerations  . . . . . . . . .  14
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

1.  Introduction

   The Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) [RFC5326] provides a
   reliable datagram convergence layer for the Delay/Disruption Tolerant
   Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP) [I-D.ietf-dtn-bpbis].  In
   common practice, LTP is often configured over the User Datagram
   Protocol (UDP) [RFC0768] and Internet Protocol (IP) [RFC0791] using
   the "socket" abstraction.  LTP inherits its maximum segment size from
   the maximum-sized UDP/IP datagram (i.e. 64KB minus header sizes),
   however when that size exceeds the maximum IP packet size for the
   path a service known as IP fragmentation must be employed.

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   LTP breaks BP bundles into "blocks", then further breaks these blocks
   into "segments".  The segment size is a configurable option and
   represents the largest atomic portion of data that LTP will require
   underlying layers to deliver as a single unit.  The segment size is
   therefore also known as the "retransmission unit", since each lost
   segment must be retransmitted in its entirety.  Experimental and
   operational evidence has shown that on robust networks increasing the
   LTP segment size (up to the maximum UDP/IP datagram size of slightly
   less than 64KB) can result in substantial performance increases over
   smaller segment sizes.  However, the performance increases must be
   tempered with the amount of IP fragmentation invoked as discussed
   below.

   When LTP presents a segment to the operating system kernel (e.g., via
   a sendmsg() system call), the UDP layer prepends a UDP header to
   create a UDP datagram.  The UDP layer then presents the resulting
   datagram to the IP layer for packet framing and transmission over a
   networked path.  The path is further characterized by the path
   Maximum Transmission Unit (Path-MTU) which is a measure of the
   smallest link MTU (Link-MTU) among all links in the path.

   When LTP presents a segment to the kernel that is larger than the
   Path-MTU, the resulting UDP datagram is presented to the IP layer
   which in turn performs IP fragmentation to break the datagram into
   fragments that are no larger than the Path-MTU.  For example, if the
   LTP segment size is 64KB and the Path-MTU is 1280 bytes IP
   fragmentation results in 50+ fragments that are transmitted as
   individual IP packets.  (Note that for IPv4 [RFC0791], fragmentation
   may occur either in the source host or in a router in the network
   path, while for IPv6 [RFC8200] only the source host may perform
   fragmentation.)

   Each IP fragment is subject to the same best-effort delivery service
   offered by the network according to current congestion and/or link
   signal quality conditions; therefore, the IP fragment size becomes
   known as the "loss unit".  Especially when the packet loss rate is
   non-negligible, however, performance can suffer dramatically when the
   loss unit is significantly smaller than the retransmission unit.  In
   particular, if even a single IP fragment of a fragmented LTP segment
   is lost then the entire LTP segment is deemed lost and must be
   retransmitted.  Since LTP does not support flow control or congestion
   control, this can result in cascading communication failure when
   fragments are systematically lost in transit.

   This document discusses LTP interactions with IP fragmentation and
   mitigations for managing the amount of IP fragmentation employed.  It
   further discusses methods for increasing LTP performance both with
   and without the aid of IP fragmentation.

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2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

3.  IP Fragmentation Issues

   IP fragmentation is a fundamental service of the Internet Protocol,
   yet it has long been understood that its use can be problematic in
   some environments.  Beginning as early as 1987, "Fragmentation
   Considered Harmful" [FRAG] outlined multiple issues with the service
   including a performance-crippling condition that can occur at high
   data rates when the loss unit is considerably smaller than the
   retransmission unit during intermittent and/or steady-state loss
   conditions.

   Later investigations also identified the possibility for undetected
   corruption at high data rates due to a condition known as "ID
   wraparound" when the 16-bit IP identification field (aka the "IP ID")
   increments such that new fragments overlap with existing fragments
   still alive in the network and with identical ID values
   [RFC4963][RFC6864].  Although this issue occurs only in the IPv4
   protocol (and not in IPv6 where the IP ID is 32-bits in length), the
   IPv4 concerns along with the fact that IPv6 does not permit routers
   to perform "network fragmentation" have led many to discourage the
   use of fragmentation whenever possible.

   Even in the modern era, investigators have seen fit to declare "IP
   Fragmentation Considered Fragile" in an Internet Engineering Task
   Force (IETF) Best Current Practice (BCP) reference [RFC8900].
   Indeed, the BCP recommendations cite the Bundle Protocol LTP
   convergence layer as a user of IP fragmentation that depends on some
   of its properties to realize greater performance.  However, the BCP
   summarizes by saying:

      "Rather than deprecating IP fragmentation, this document
      recommends that upper-layer protocols address the problem of
      fragmentation at their layer, reducing their reliance on IP
      fragmentation to the greatest degree possible."

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   While the performance implications are considerable and have serious
   implications for real-world applications, our goal in this document
   is neither to condemn nor embrace IP fragmentation as it pertains to
   the Bundle Protocol LTP convergence layer operating over UDP/IP
   sockets.  Instead, we examine ways in which the benefits of IP
   fragmentation can be realized while avoiding the pitfalls.  We
   therefore next discuss our systematic approach to LTP fragmentation.

4.  LTP Fragmentation

   In common LTP implementations over UDP/IP (e.g., the Interplanetary
   Overlay Network (ION)), performance is greatly dependent on the LTP
   segment size.  This is due to the fact that a larger segment
   presented to UDP/IP as a single unit incurs only a single system call
   and a single data copy from application to kernel space via the
   sendmsg() system call.  Once inside the kernel, the segment incurs
   UDP/IP encapsulation and IP fragmentation which again results in a
   loss unit smaller than the retransmission unit.  However, during
   fragmentation, each fragment is transmitted immediately following the
   previous without delay so that the fragments appear as a "burst" of
   consecutive packets over the network path resulting in high network
   utilization during the burst period.  Additionally, the use of IP
   fragmentation with a larger segment size conserves header framing
   bytes since the upper layer headers only appear in the first IP
   fragment as opposed to appearing in all fragments.

   In order to avoid retransmission congestion (i.e., especially when
   the loss probability is non-negligible), the natural choice would be
   to set the LTP segment size to a size that is no larger than the
   Path-MTU.  Assuming the minimum IPv4 MTU of 576 bytes, however,
   transmission of 64KB of data using a 576B segment size would require
   well over 100 independent sendmsg() system calls and data copies as
   opposed to just one when the largest segment size is used.  This
   greatly reduces the bandwidth advantage offered by IP fragmentation
   bursts.  Therefore, a means for providing the best aspects of both
   large segment fragment bursting and small segment retransmission
   efficiency is needed.

   Common operating systems such as linux provide the sendmmsg() ("send
   multiple messages") system call that allows the LTP application to
   present the kernel with a vector of up to 1024 segments instead of
   just a single segment.  This theoretically affords the bursting
   behavior of IP fragmentation coupled with the retransmission
   efficiency of employing small segment sizes.  (Note that LTP
   receivers can also use the recvmmsg() ("receive multiple messages")
   system call to receive a vector of segments from the kernel in case
   multiple recent packet arrivals can be combined.)

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   This work therefore recommends implementations of LTP to employ a
   large block size, a conservative segment size and a new configuration
   option known as the "Burst-Limit" which determines the number of
   segments that can be presented in a single sendmmsg() system call.
   When the implementation receives an LTP block, it carves Burst-Limit-
   many segments from the block and presents the vector of segments to
   sendmmsg().  The kernel will prepare each segment as an independent
   UDP/IP packet and transmit them into the network as a burst in a
   fashion that parallels IP fragmentation.  The loss unit and
   retransmission unit will be the same, therefore loss of a single
   segment does not result in a retransmission congestion event.

   It should be noted that the Burst-Limit is bounded only by the LTP
   block size and not by the maximum UDP/IP datagram size.  Therefore,
   each burst can in practice convey significantly more data than a
   single IP fragmentation event.  It should also be noted that the
   segment size can still be made larger than the Path-MTU in low-loss
   environments without danger of triggering retransmission storms due
   to loss of IP fragments.  This would result in combined large UDP/IP
   message transmission and IP fragmentation bursting for increased
   network utilization in more robust environments.  Finally, both the
   Burst-Limit and UDP/IP message sizes need not be static values, and
   can be tuned to adaptively increase or decrease according to time
   varying network conditions.

5.  Beyond "sendmmsg()"

   Implementation experience with the ION-DTN distribution along with
   two recent studies have demonstrated modest performance increases for
   employing sendmmsg() for transmission over UDP/IP sockets.  A first
   study used sendmmsg() as part of an integrated solution to produce 1M
   packets per second assuming only raw data transmission conditions
   [MPPS], while a second study focused on performance improvements for
   the QUIC reliable transport service [QUIC].  In both studies, the use
   of sendmmsg() alone produced observable increases but complimentary
   enhancements were identified that (when combined with sendmmsg())
   produced considerable additional increases.

   In [MPPS], additional enhancements such as using recvmmsg() and
   configuring multiple receive queues at the receiver were introduced
   in an attempt to achieve greater parallelism and engage multiple
   processors and threads.  However, the system was still limited to a
   single thread until multiple receiving processes were introduced
   using the "SO_REUSEPORT" socket option.  By having multiple receiving
   processes (each with its own socket buffer), the performance
   advantages of parallel processing were employed to achieve the 1M
   packets per second goal.

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   In [QUIC], a new feature available in recent linux kernel versions
   was employed.  The feature, known as "Generic Segmentation Offload
   (GSO) / Generic Receive Offload (GRO)" allows an application to
   provide the kernel with a "super-buffer" containing up to 64 separate
   upper layer protocol segments.  When the application presents the
   super-buffer to the kernel, GSO segmentation then sends up to 64
   separate UDP/IP packets in a burst.  (Note that GSO requires each
   UDP/IP packet to be no larger than the path MTU so that receivers can
   invoke GRO without interactions with IP reassembly.)  The GSO
   facility can be invoked by either sendmsg() (i.e., a single super-
   buffer) or sendmmsg() (i.e., multiple super-buffers), and the study
   showed a substantial performance increase over using just sendmsg()
   and sendmmsg() alone.

   For LTP fragmentation, our ongoing efforts explore using these
   techniques in a manner that parallels the effort undertaken for QUIC.
   Using these higher-layer segmentation management facilities is
   consistent with the guidance in "IP Fragmentation Considered Fragile"
   that states:

      "Rather than deprecating IP fragmentation, this document
      recommends that upper-layer protocols address the problem of
      fragmentation at their layer, reducing their reliance on IP
      fragmentation to the greatest degree possible."

   By addressing fragmentation at their layer, the LTP/UDP functions can
   then be tuned to minimize IP fragmentation in environments where it
   may be problematic or to adaptively engage IP fragmentation in
   environments where performance gains can be realized without risking
   sustained loss and/or data corruption.

6.  LTP Performance Enhancement Using GSO/GRO

   Some modern operating systems include Generic Segment Offload (GSO)
   and Generic Receive Offload (GRO) services.  For example, GSO/GRO
   support has been included in linux beginning with kernel version
   4.18.  Some network drivers and network hardware also support GSO/GRO
   at or below the operating system network device driver interface
   layer to provide benefits of delayed segmentation and/or early
   reassembly.  The following sections discuss LTP interactions with GSO
   and GRO.

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6.1.  LTP and GSO

   GSO allows LTP implementations to present the sendmsg() or sendmmsg()
   system calls with "super-buffers" that include up to 64 LTP segments
   which the kernel will subdivide into individual UDP/IP datagrams.
   LTP implementations enable GSO either on a per-socket basis using the
   "setsockopt()" system call or on a per-message basis for
   sendmsg()/sendmmsg() as follows:

     /* Set LTP segment size */
     unsigned integer gso_size = SEGSIZE;
     ...
     /* Enable GSO for all messages sent on the socket */
     setsockopt(fd, SOL_UDP, UDP_SEGMENT, &gso_size, sizeof(gso_size)));
     ...
     /* Alternatively, set per-message GSO control */
     cm = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg);
     cm->cmsg_level = SOL_UDP;
     cm->cmsg_type = UDP_SEGMENT;
     cm->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(uint16_t));
     *((uint16_t *) CMSG_DATA(cm)) = gso_size;

   Implementations must set SEGSIZE to a value no larger than the path
   MTU via the underlying network interface, minus the header sizes
   (see: Appendix A); this ensures that UDP/IP datagrams generated
   during GSO segmentation will not incur local IP fragmentation prior
   to transmission (NB: the linux kernel returns EINVAL if SEGSIZE is
   set to a value that would exceed the path MTU.)

   Implementations should therefore dynamically determine SEGSIZE for
   paths that traverse multiple links through Packetization Layer Path
   MTU Discovery for Datagram Transports [RFC8899] (DPMTUD).
   Implementations should set an initial SEGSIZE to either a known
   minimum MTU for the path or to the protocol-defined minimum path MTU
   (i.e., 576 for IPv4 or 1280 for IPv6).  Implementations may then
   dynamically increase SEGSIZE without service interruption if the
   discovered path MTU is larger.

6.2.  LTP and GRO

   GRO allows the kernel to return "super-buffers" that contain multiple
   concatenated received segments to the LTP implementation in recvmsg()
   or recvmmsg() system calls, where each concatenated segment is
   distinguished by an LTP segment header per [RFC5326].  LTP
   implementations enable GRO on a per-socket basis using the
   "setsockopt()" system call, then optionally set up per receive
   message ancillary data to receive the segment length for each message
   as follows:

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     /* Enable GRO */
     unsigned integer use_gro = 1; /* boolean */
     setsockopt(fd, SOL_UDP, UDP_GRO, &use_gro, sizeof(use_gro)));
     ...
     /* Set per-message GRO control */
     cmsg->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int));
     *((int *)CMSG_DATA(cmsg)) = 0;
     cmsg->cmsg_level = SOL_UDP;
     cmsg->cmsg_type = UDP_GRO;
     ...
     /* Receive per-message GRO segment length */
     if ((segmentLength = *((int *)CMSG_DATA(cmsg))) <= 0)
          segmentLength = messageLength;

   Implementations include a pointer to a "use_gro" boolean indication
   to the kernel to enable GRO; the only interoperability requirement
   therefore is that each UDP/IP packet includes an integral number of
   properly-formed LTP segments.  The kernel and/or underlying network
   hardware will first coalesce multiple received segments into a larger
   single segment whenever possible and/or return multiple coalesced or
   singular segments to the LTP implementation so as to maximize the
   amount of data returned in a single system call.  The "super-buffer"
   thus prepared MUST contain at most 64 segments where each non-final
   segment MUST be equal in length and the final segment MUST NOT be
   longer than the non-final segment length.

   Implementations that invoke recvmsg( ) and/or recvmmsg() will
   therefore receive "super-buffers" that include one or more
   concatenated received LTP segments.  The LTP implementation accepts
   all received LTP segments and identifies any segments that may be
   missing.  The LTP protocol then engages segment report procedures if
   necessary to request retransmission of any missing segments.

6.3.  LTP GSO/GRO Over OMNI Interfaces

   LTP engines produce UDP/IP packets that can be forwarded over an
   underlying network interface as the head-end of a "link-layer service
   that transits IP packets".  UDP/IP packets that enter the link near-
   end are deterministically delivered to the link-far end modulo loss
   due to corruption, congestion or disruption.  The link-layer service
   is associated with an MTU that deterministically establishes the
   maximum packet size that can transit the link.  The link-layer
   service may further support a segmentation and reassembly function
   with fragment retransmissions at a layer below IP; in many cases,
   these timely link-layer retransmissions can reduce dependency on
   (slow) end-to-end retransmissions.

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   LTP engines that connect to networks traversed by paths consisting of
   multiple concatenated links must be prepared to adapt their segment
   sizes to match the minimum MTU of all links in the path.  This could
   result in a small SEGSIZE that would interfere with the benefits of
   GSO/GRO layering.  However, nodes that configure LTP engines can also
   establish an Overlay Multilink Network Interface (OMNI)
   [I-D.templin-6man-omni] that spans the multiple concatenated links
   while presenting an assured (64KB-1) MTU to the LTP engine.

   The OMNI interface internally uses IPv6 fragmentation as an OMNI
   Adaptation Layer (OAL) service not visible to the LTP engine to allow
   timely link-layer retransmissions of lost fragments where the
   retransmission unit matches the loss unit.  The LTP engine can then
   dynamically vary its SEGSIZE (up to a maximum value of (64KB-1) minus
   headers) to determine the size that produces the best performance at
   the current time by engaging the combined operational factors at all
   layers of the multi-layer architecture.  This dynamic factoring
   coupled with the ideal link properties provided by the OMNI interface
   support an effective layering solution for many DTN networks.

   When an LTP/UDP/IP packet is transmitted over an OMNI interface, the
   OAL inserts an IPv6 header and performs IPv6 fragmentation to produce
   fragments small enough to fit within the path MTU.  The OAL then
   replaces the IPv6 encapsulation headers with OMNI Compressed Headers
   (OCHs) which are significantly smaller that their uncompressed IPv6
   header counterparts and even smaller than the IPv4 headers would have
   been had the packet been sent directly over a physical interface such
   as Ethernet using IPv4 fragmentation.

   The end result is that the first fragment produced by the OAL will
   include a small amount of additional overhead to accommodate the OCH
   encapsulation header while all additional fragments will include only
   an OCH header which is significantly smaller than even an IPv4
   header.  The act of forwarding the large LTP/UDP/IP packet over the
   OMNI interface will therefore produce a considerable overhead savings
   in comparison with direct Ethernet transmission.

   Using the OMNI interface with its OAL service in addition to the GSO/
   GRO mechanism, an LTP engine can therefore theoretically present
   concatenated LTP segments in a "super-buffer" of up to (64 * ((64KB-
   1) minus headers)) octets for transmission in a single sendmsg()
   system call, and may present multiple such "super-buffers" in a
   single system call when sendmmsg() is used.  (Note however that
   existing implementations limit the maximum-sized "super-buffer" to
   only 64KB total.)  In the future, this service may realize even
   greater benefits through the use of IP Jumbograms [RFC2675] over
   paths that support them.

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6.4.  IP Parcels

   The so-called "super-buffers" discussed in the previous sessions can
   be applied for GSO/GRO only when the LTP application endpoints are
   co-resident with the OAL source and destination, respectively.
   However, it may be desirable for the future architecture to support
   network forwarding for these "super-buffers" in case the LTP source
   and/or destination are located one or more IP networking hops away
   from nodes that configure their respective source and destination
   OMNI interfaces.  Moreover, if the OMNI virtual link spans multiple
   OMNI intermediate nodes on the path from the OAL source to the OAL
   destination it may be desirable to keep the "super-buffers" together
   as much as possible as they traverse the intermediate hops.  For this
   reason, a new construct known as the "IP Parcel" has been specified
   [I-D.templin-intarea-parcels].

   An IP parcel is a special form of an IP Jumbogram that includes a
   non-zero value in the IP [Total, Paylaod] Length field.  The value in
   that field sets the segment size for the first segment included in
   the parcel, while the value coded in the Jumbo Payload header
   determines the number of segments included.  Each segment "shares"
   the same IP header, and the parcel can be broken down into sub-
   parcels if necessary to traverse paths with length restrictions.  A
   full discussion of IP parcels is found in
   [I-D.templin-intarea-parcels].

7.  Implementation Status

   Supporting code for invoking the sendmmsg() facility is included in
   the official ION source code distribution, beginning with release
   ion-4.0.1.

   Working code for GSO/GRO has been incorporated into a pre-release of
   ION and scheduled for integration following the next major release.

8.  IANA Considerations

   This document introduces no IANA considerations.

9.  Security Considerations

   Communications networking security is necessary to preserve
   confidentiality, integrity and availability.

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10.  Acknowledgements

   The NASA Space Communications and Networks (SCaN) directorate
   coordinates DTN activities for the International Space Station (ISS)
   and other space exploration initiatives.

   Madhuri Madhava Badgandi, Keith Philpott, Bill Pohlchuck,
   Vijayasarathy Rajagopalan and Eric Yeh are acknowledged for their
   significant contributions.  Tyler Doubrava was the first to mention
   the "sendmmsg()" facility.  Scott Burleigh provided review input, and
   David Zoller provided useful perspective.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [RFC0768]  Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0768, August 1980,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc768>.

   [RFC0791]  Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC0791, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc791>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5326]  Ramadas, M., Burleigh, S., and S. Farrell, "Licklider
              Transmission Protocol - Specification", RFC 5326,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5326, September 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5326>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8200]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.

11.2.  Informative References

   [FRAG]     Mogul, J. and C. Kent, "Fragmentation Considered Harmful,
              ACM Sigcomm 1987", August 1987.

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   [I-D.ietf-dtn-bpbis]
              Burleigh, S., Fall, K., and E. J. Birrane, "Bundle
              Protocol Version 7", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-dtn-bpbis-31, 25 January 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-dtn-bpbis-
              31.txt>.

   [I-D.templin-6man-omni]
              Templin, F. L. and T. Whyman, "Transmission of IP Packets
              over Overlay Multilink Network (OMNI) Interfaces", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-templin-6man-omni-51, 15
              November 2021, <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-
              templin-6man-omni-51.txt>.

   [I-D.templin-intarea-parcels]
              Templin, F. L., "IP Parcels", Work in Progress, Internet-
              Draft, draft-templin-intarea-parcels-06, 22 December 2021,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-templin-intarea-
              parcels-06.txt>.

   [MPPS]     Majkowski, M., "How to Receive a Million Packets Per
              Second, https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-receive-a-
              million-packets/", June 2015.

   [QUIC]     Ghedini, A., "Accelerating UDP Packet Transmission for
              QUIC, https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2019/accelerating-
              udp-packet-transmission-for-quic/", December 2019.

   [RFC2675]  Borman, D., Deering, S., and R. Hinden, "IPv6 Jumbograms",
              RFC 2675, DOI 10.17487/RFC2675, August 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2675>.

   [RFC4963]  Heffner, J., Mathis, M., and B. Chandler, "IPv4 Reassembly
              Errors at High Data Rates", RFC 4963,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4963, July 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4963>.

   [RFC6864]  Touch, J., "Updated Specification of the IPv4 ID Field",
              RFC 6864, DOI 10.17487/RFC6864, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6864>.

   [RFC8899]  Fairhurst, G., Jones, T., Tüxen, M., Rüngeler, I., and T.
              Völker, "Packetization Layer Path MTU Discovery for
              Datagram Transports", RFC 8899, DOI 10.17487/RFC8899,
              September 2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8899>.

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   [RFC8900]  Bonica, R., Baker, F., Huston, G., Hinden, R., Troan, O.,
              and F. Gont, "IP Fragmentation Considered Fragile",
              BCP 230, RFC 8900, DOI 10.17487/RFC8900, September 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8900>.

Appendix A.  IPv4/IPv6 Protocol Considerations

   LTP/UDP/IP peers can communicate either via IPv4 or IPv6 addressing
   when both peers configure a unique address of the same protocol
   version on the OMNI interface.  The IPv4 Total Length field includes
   the length of both the UDP header and base IPv4 header, while the
   IPv6 Payload Length field includes the length of the UDP header but
   not the base IPv6 header.

   Therefore, unless header extensions are included, each maximum-sized
   LTP/UDP/IPv6 packet would contain 20 octets more actual LTP data than
   a maximum-sized LTP/UDP/IPv4 packet can contain for the price of
   including only 20 additional header octets for IPv6.  The overhead
   percentage for carrying this additional 20 header octets in maximum-
   sized packets is therefore insignificant and becomes smaller still
   when IPv6 header compression is used.

Author's Address

   Fred L. Templin (editor)
   Boeing Research & Technology
   P.O. Box 3707
   Seattle, WA 98124
   United States of America

   Email: fltemplin@acm.org

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