This memo presented a set of extensions to TCP to provide efficient operation over large-bandwidth*delay-product paths and reliable operation over very high-speed paths. These extensions are designed to provide compatible interworking with TCP's that do not implement the extensions.
These mechanisms are implemented using new TCP options for scaled windows and timestamps. The timestamps are used for two distinct mechanisms: RTTM (Round Trip Time Measurement) and PAWS (Protect Against Wrapped Sequences).
The Window Scale option was originally suggested by Mike St. Johns of USAF/DCA. The present form of the option was suggested by Mike Karels of UC Berkeley in response to a more cumbersome scheme defined by Van Jacobson. Lixia Zhang helped formulate the PAWS mechanism description in RFC-1185.
Finally, much of this work originated as the result of discussions within the End-to-End Task Force on the theoretical limitations of transport protocols in general and TCP in particular. More recently, task force members and other on the end2end-interest list have made valuable contributions by pointing out flaws in the algorithms and the documentation. The authors are grateful for all these contributions.