[e2e] overlay over TCP

[Dan Wing]

On Jan 19, 2005, at 3:31 PM, RJ Atkinson wrote:

>
> Perhaps one of the paths forward is for folks who propose new 
> transport-layer
> protocols to also have an informational document targeted at folks who 
> build
> firewalls (or other middle boxes) to help educate them on what the 
> real risks
> are (and aren't) with the new protocol and also to give them help on 
> how
> to implement support for that new protocol in their middle box...

The IETF BEHAVE working group would be a good home for such work.  It 
is currently chartered to provide guidance for NATs handling UDP and 
TCP.  Its charter could be expanded to other protocols, or individual 
submissions could follow a framework similar to BEHAVE's current 
documents.

> For example, with SCTP, one of the things that could help would be 
> specific
> openly published information on efficiently re-calculating the SCTP 
> checksum
> after a NAT has done its work, for example.  Many folks know how to do 
> this
> with a Fletcher checksum (often because they've looked at BSDish code),
> but not so many know how to do it with SCTP's new checksum.
>
> (My assumption here is that the big barrier is confusion/ignorance. :-)

Yes, combined with little market demand, as yet, for a NAT to handle 
SCTP.

-d