T/TCP: TCP for Transactions

Consider a DNS system, one where a client sends a request to a server and expects a small amount of data in return. A diagram of the transaction can be seen in Figure 1. This diagram is very similar to a UDP request with a saving of 66% in packets transferred compared to TCP. Obviously, in cases where a large amount of data is being transferred, there will be more packets transmitted and thus a decrease in the percentage saved.

Figure 1. Time line of T/TCP Client-Server Transaction

Timing experiments have shown that there is a slightly longer time required for T/TCP than for UDP, but this is a result of the speed of the computer and not the network. As computers get more powerful, the performance of T/TCP will approach that of UDP.

TCP Accelerated Open (TAO) is a mechanism introduced by T/TCP designed to cut down on the number of packets needed to establish a connection with a host.

There are a number of new options that T/TCP introduces. These options allow the establishment of a connection with a host using the TAO. T/TCP uses a 32-bit incarnation number, called a connection count (CC). This option is carried in the options part of a T/TCP segment (see Figure 2). A distinct CC value is assigned to each direction of an open connection. Incremental CC values are assigned to each connection that a host establishes, either actively or passively.

Figure 2. TCP Header

The three-way handshake is bypassed using the CC value. Each server host caches the last valid CC value it received from each different client host. This CC value is sent with the initial SYN segment to the server. If the initial CC value for a particular client host is larger than the corresponding cached value, the property of the CC options (the increasing numbers) ensures that the SYN segment is new and can be accepted immediately.

The TAO test fails if the CC option arriving in the SYN segment is smaller than the last CC value received that was cached by the host, or if a CCnew option is sent. The server then initiates a three-way handshake in the normal TCP/IP fashion.

T/TCP can be beneficial to some of the applications that currently use TCP or UDP. At the moment, many applications are transaction-based rather than connection-based, but still have to rely on TCP, along with the overhead. UDP is the other alternative, but not having time-outs and retransmissions built into the protocol means the application programmers have to supply the time-outs and reliability checking themselves. Since T/TCP is transaction-based, there is no set-up and shutdown time, so the data can be passed to the process with minimal delay.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is the method used by the World Wide Web to access web pages. T/TCP can be used to reduce the number of packets required.

With TCP, the transaction is accomplished by connecting to the server (three-way handshake), requesting the file (GET file), then closing the connection (sending a FIN segment). T/TCP would operate by connecting to the server, requesting the document and closing the connection, all in one segment (TAO). It is obvious that bandwidth is saved by this method.

Remote procedure calls (RPCs) also adhere to the transaction style paradigm. A client sends a request to a server for the server to run a function. The results of the function are then returned in the reply to the client. There is only a tiny amount of data transferred with RPCs.

The Domain Name System is used to resolve host names into the IP addresses that locate the host.

To resolve a domain name, the client sends a request with the IP address or a host name to the server. The server responds with the host name or IP address where appropriate. This protocol uses UDP.

As a result of using UDP, the process is fast, but not reliable. Furthermore, if the response by the server exceeds 512 bytes of data, it sends the data back to the client with the first 512 bytes and a truncated flag. The client has to resubmit the request using TCP.

The reason for this is there is no guarantee that the receiving host will be able to reassemble an IP datagram exceeding 576 bytes. For safety, many protocols limit the user data to 512 bytes.

T/TCP is the perfect candidate for the DNS protocol. It can communicate at speeds approaching that of UDP, and it has the reliability of TCP.