Relaxing Restrictions on Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Experimentation
RFC 8311
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. Black
Request for Comments: 8311 Dell EMC
Updates: 3168, 4341, 4342, 5622, 6679 January 2018
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
Relaxing Restrictions on
Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Experimentation
Abstract
This memo updates RFC 3168, which specifies Explicit Congestion
Notification (ECN) as an alternative to packet drops for indicating
network congestion to endpoints. It relaxes restrictions in RFC 3168
that hinder experimentation towards benefits beyond just removal of
loss. This memo summarizes the anticipated areas of experimentation
and updates RFC 3168 to enable experimentation in these areas. An
Experimental RFC in the IETF document stream is required to take
advantage of any of these enabling updates. In addition, this memo
makes related updates to the ECN specifications for RTP in RFC 6679
and for the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) in RFCs 4341,
4342, and 5622. This memo also records the conclusion of the ECN
nonce experiment in RFC 3540 and provides the rationale for
reclassification of RFC 3540 from Experimental to Historic; this
reclassification enables new experimental use of the ECT(1)
codepoint.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
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). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in 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/rfc8311.
Black Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 8311 ECN Experimentation January 2018
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RFC 8311 ECN Experimentation January 2018
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. ECN Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. ECN Experimentation: Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1. Effective Congestion Control is Required . . . . . . . . 6
2.2. Network Considerations for ECN Experimentation . . . . . 6
2.3. Operational and Management Considerations . . . . . . . . 7
3. ECN Nonce and RFC 3540 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Updates to RFC 3168 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1. Congestion Response Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2. Congestion Marking Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.3. TCP Control Packets and Retransmissions . . . . . . . . . 13
5. ECN for RTP Updates to RFC 6679 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. ECN for DCCP Updates to RFCs 4341, 4342, and 5622 . . . . . . 16
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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