Towards a transport service for transaction processing applications

Abstract

The DoD Internet protocol suite includes two alternative transport service protocols, TCP and UDP, which provide virtual circuit and datagram service, respectively. These two protocols represent points in the space of possible transport service attributes which are quite "far apart". We want to examine an important class of applications, those which perform what is often called "transaction processing". We will see that the communication needs for these applications fall into the gap "between" TCP and UDP -- neither protocol is very appropriate. This RFC is concerned with the possible design of one or more new protocols for the ARPA-Internet, to support kinds of applications which are not well supported at present. The RFC is intended to spur discussion in the Internet research community towards the development of new protocols and/or concepts, in order to meet these unmet application requirements. It does not represent a standard, nor even a concrete protocol proposal.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Unknown” means

The standards-track status of this early RFC was never formally classified.