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From: hedrick@ARAMIS.RUTGERS.EDU (Charles Hedrick)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: new Arpanet end to end protocol
Message-ID: <8711060720.AA24392@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: Fri, 6-Nov-87 02:20:54 EST
Article-I.D.: athos.8711060720.AA24392
Posted: Fri Nov  6 02:20:54 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Nov-87 05:32:39 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 17

I have just heard from a reliable source a fairly interesting fact
about the new end to end protocol implemented in PSN 7.0.  (Note that
my terminology is probably slightly off in this message.  I don't know
anything about the imp to host protocol, so I am almost certainly
introducing some distortion in passing on this information.)
Apparently one of the efficiency improvements in the new end to end
protocol is that the IMP's will no longer attempt to return a RFNM for
each packet.  You will be expected to look at the ID number included
in the RFNM's.  Any outstanding RFNM's with ID numbers lower than the
current one are also to be considered as acknowledged.  Many
implementations apparently simply count RFNM's.  They assume that one
acknowledgement is received per packet.  This will no longer be true
with the new end to end protocol, and so these implementations will
break.  I have some reason to think that most existing implementations
fall into this category.  Tests of the new end to end protocol are
scheduled for Nov 7, 14-15, and 18.  Implementors should be alert to
misbehaviors during these test periods.