RFC 2556 (rfc2556) - Page 2 of 4

OSI connectionless transport services on top of UDP Applicability Statement for Historic Status

RFC 2556                  RFC 1240 to Historic                March 1999


   collapse.

   In the case of RFC 1240, the authors seemed to assume that if some
   level of reliability was needed in an RFC 1240 environment that the
   reliability algorithms and the congestion control algorithms which
   would then be required would reside in the OSI protocols running over
   the UDP transport.  It is far from clear that any perceived
   advantages of running over UDP would not be eclipsed by the
   difficulties experienced in trying to create a reasonable congestion
   control algorithm.  Implementers would likely find that running over
   TCP as RFC 2126 describes is the better choice.

3. Conclusion

   Due to the lack of use of the technology described in RFC 1240 and
   the issues surrounding congestion control in the Internet, RFC 1240
   should be reclassified as Historic and its implementation actively
   discouraged.

4. Security Considerations

   This type of non-protocol document does not directly effect the
   security of the Internet.

5. References

   RFC 896   Nagle, J., "Congestion control in IP/TCP internetworks",
             RFC 896, January 1984.

   RFC 1240  Shue, C., Haggerty, W. and K. Dobbins, "OSI connectionless
             transport services on top of UDP: Version 1.", RFC 1240
             June 1991.

   RFC 2126  Pouffary, Y. and A. Young, "ISO Transport Service on top of
             TCP (ITOT)", RFC 2126, March 1997.
















Bradner                      Informational