Re: rfc791 coming up to 40 years ... what to do (remember, celebrate, ...?)

[Joseph Touch <touch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 24, 2021, at 3:22 PM, Keith Moore <moore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

...Not sure I agree that TCP was optimized for file transfer - certainly a transport that's optimized for file transfer doesn't need to ensure strict ordering of all messages sent from one peer to another as long as they get reassembled in correct order when the file is written….

At the time it was created, dominant devices were sequential read/write (e.g., paper and magnetic tape, paper cards). So a small amount of reordering compensation in TCP allowed for those devices at the edges. That’s why TCP is called a byte stream protocol, not a bulk transfer one.

For bulk transfer, see NETBLT.

Joe