Multicast Transport Protocol
RFC 1301
Network Working Group S. Armstrong
Request for Comments: 1301 Xerox
A. Freier
Apple
K. Marzullo
Cornell
February 1992
Multicast Transport Protocol
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Summary
This memo describes a protocol for reliable transport that utilizes
the multicast capability of applicable lower layer networking
architectures. The transport definition permits an arbitrary number
of transport providers to perform realtime collaborations without
requiring networking clients (aka, applications) to possess detailed
knowledge of the population or geographical dispersion of the
participating members. It is not network architectural specific, but
does implicitly require some form of multicasting (or broadcasting)
at the data link level, as well as some means of communicating that
capability up through the layers to the transport.
Keywords: reliable transport, multicast, broadcast, collaboration,
networking.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Protocol description 3
2.1 Definition of terms 3
2.2 Packet format 6
2.2.1. Protocol version 7
2.2.2. Packet type and modifier 7
2.2.3. Subchannel 9
2.2.4. Source connection identifier 9
2.2.5. Destination connection identifier 10
2.2.6. Message acceptance 10
2.2.7. Heartbeat 12
2.2.8. Window 12
2.2.9. Retention 12
Armstrong, Freier & Marzullo [Page 1]
RFC 1301 Multicast Transport Protocol February 1992
2.3 Transport addresses 12
2.3.1. Unknown transport address 12
2.3.2. Web's multicast address 13
2.3.3. Member addresses 13
3. Protocol behavior 13
3.1. Establishing a transport 13
3.1.1. Join request 14
3.1.2. Join confirm/deny 16
3.2 Maintaining data consistency 17
3.2.1. Transmit tokens 17
3.2.2. Data transmission 20
3.2.3. Empty packets 23
3.2.4. Missed data 26
3.2.5. Retrying operations 26
3.2.6. Retransmission 27
3.2.7. Duplicate suppression 29
3.2.8. Banishment 29
3.3 Terminating the transport 29
3.3.1. Voluntary quits 30
3.3.2. Master quit 30
3.3.3. Banishment 30
3.4 Transport parameters 30
3.4.1. Quality of service 30
3.4.2. Selecting parameter values 31
3.4.3. Caching member information 33
A. Appendix: MTP as an Internet Protocol transport 34
A.1 Internet Protocol multicast addressing 34
A.2 Encapsulation 35
A.3 Fields of the bridge protocol 35
A.4 Relationship to other Internet Transports 36
References 36
Footnotes 37
Security Considerations 37
Authors' Addresses 38
1. Introduction
This document describes a flow controlled, atomic multicasting
transport protocol (MTP). The purpose of this document is to present
sufficient information to implement the protocol.
The MTP design has been influenced by the large body of the
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