Transport Features of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Lightweight UDP (UDP-Lite)
RFC 8304

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                      G. Fairhurst
Request for Comments: 8304                                      T. Jones
Category: Informational                           University of Aberdeen
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            February 2018

         Transport Features of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
                     and Lightweight UDP (UDP-Lite)

Abstract

   This is an informational document that describes the transport
   protocol interface primitives provided by the User Datagram Protocol
   (UDP) and the Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite) transport
   protocols.  It identifies the datagram services exposed to
   applications and how an application can configure and use the
   features offered by the Internet datagram transport service.  RFC
   8303 documents the usage of transport features provided by IETF
   transport protocols, describing the way UDP, UDP-Lite, and other
   transport protocols expose their services to applications and how an
   application can configure and use the features that make up these
   services.  This document provides input to and context for that
   document, as well as offers a road map to documentation that may help
   users of the UDP and UDP-Lite protocols.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8304.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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 extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  UDP and UDP-Lite Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Primitives Provided by UDP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       3.1.1.  Excluded Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     3.2.  Primitives Provided by UDP-Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   Appendix A.  Multicast Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

1.  Introduction

   This document presents defined interactions between transport
   protocols and applications in the form of 'primitives' (function
   calls) for the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) [RFC0768] and the
   Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP-Lite) [RFC3828].  In this
   usage, the word application refers to any program built on the
   datagram interface, including tunnels and other upper-layer protocols
   that use UDP and UDP-Lite.

   UDP is widely implemented and deployed.  It is used for a wide range
   of applications.  A special class of applications can derive benefit
   from having partially damaged payloads delivered, rather than
   discarded, when using paths that include error-prone links.
   Applications that can tolerate payload corruption can choose to use
   UDP-Lite instead of UDP and use the application programming interface

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   (API) to control checksum protection.  Conversely, UDP applications
   could choose to use UDP-Lite, but this is currently less widely