Network Working Group A. McKenzie
Request for Comments #93 BBN
Updates RFC's 66, 80 January 1971
Initial Connection Protocol
A review of the Initial Connection Protocol (ICP) first
- described in RFC #66 and restated in RFC #80 has revealed an area of
-
- ambiguity, which in turn reflects an ambiguity in the Host-Host
-
- Protocol Document No. 1. This is the definition of the message sent
-
- over the connection from "Server socket #1". In both referenced
-
- RFC's, the message is defined as "exactly an even 32 bit number". It
-
- is not clear, however, whether this 32 bit number is meant to follow
-
- an eight-bit "message data type" code or not, stemming from the fact
-
- that the Host-Host Protocol makes provision for such codes but does
-
- not seem to absolutely demand them.
-
Only one implementation of an ICP has been documented in the
- NWG literature - that at UCSB (RFC #74). The implementers of this ICP
-
- have apparently interpreted the Host-Host Protocol as demanding a
-
- message data type code, and therefore do transmit a code of zero.
-
Steve Crocker indicates (private communication) that the Host-
- Host Protocol was intended to require a message data type code. We
-
- therefore recommend that RFC numbers 66 and 80 be amended to show that
-
- the "even 32 bit number" is preceded by a message data type code of
-
- zero (zero is the only code currently defined).
-
[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
[ into the online RFC archives by James Thompson 4/97 ]
[Page 1]
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