NACK-Oriented Reliable Multicast (NORM) Transport Protocol
RFC 5740

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Network Working Group                                         B. Adamson
Request for Comments: 5740                     Naval Research Laboratory
Obsoletes: 3940                                               C. Bormann
Category: Standards Track                        Universitaet Bremen TZI
                                                              M. Handley
                                               University College London
                                                               J. Macker
                                               Naval Research Laboratory
                                                           November 2009

       NACK-Oriented Reliable Multicast (NORM) Transport Protocol

Abstract

   This document describes the messages and procedures of the Negative-
   ACKnowledgment (NACK) Oriented Reliable Multicast (NORM) protocol.
   This protocol can provide end-to-end reliable transport of bulk data
   objects or streams over generic IP multicast routing and forwarding
   services.  NORM uses a selective, negative acknowledgment mechanism
   for transport reliability and offers additional protocol mechanisms
   to allow for operation with minimal a priori coordination among
   senders and receivers.  A congestion control scheme is specified to
   allow the NORM protocol to fairly share available network bandwidth
   with other transport protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol
   (TCP).  It is capable of operating with both reciprocal multicast
   routing among senders and receivers and with asymmetric connectivity
   (possibly a unicast return path) between the senders and receivers.
   The protocol offers a number of features to allow different types of
   applications or possibly other higher-level transport protocols to
   utilize its service in different ways.  The protocol leverages the
   use of FEC-based (forward error correction) repair and other IETF
   Reliable Multicast Transport (RMT) building blocks in its design.
   This document obsoletes RFC 3940.

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Adamson, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 5740                      NORM Protocol                November 2009

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction and Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.2.  NORM Data Delivery Service Model . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.3.  NORM Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     1.4.  Environmental Requirements and Considerations  . . . . . .  8
   2.  Architecture Definition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     2.1.  Protocol Operation Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     2.2.  Protocol Building Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     2.3.  Design Trade-Offs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   3.  Conformance Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   4.  Message Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.1.  NORM Common Message Header and Extensions  . . . . . . . . 15
     4.2.  Sender Messages  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
       4.2.1.  NORM_DATA Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18