WG Review: TCP Maintenance and Minor Extensions (tcpm)

The TCP Maintenance and Minor Extensions (tcpm) WG in the Transport Area of
the IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not made any determination
yet. The following draft charter was submitted, and is provided for
informational purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG mailing
list (iesg@ietf.org) by 2023-12-11.

TCP Maintenance and Minor Extensions (tcpm)
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Current status: Active WG

Chairs:
  Yoshifumi Nishida <nsd.ietf@gmail.com>
  Michael Tüxen <tuexen@fh-muenster.de>
  Ian Swett <ianswett@google.com>

Assigned Area Director:
  Martin Duke <martin.h.duke@gmail.com>

Transport Area Directors:
  Martin Duke <martin.h.duke@gmail.com>
  Zaheduzzaman Sarker <zahed.sarker.ietf@gmail.com>

Mailing list:
  Address: tcpm@ietf.org
  To subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/tcpm
  Archive: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/tcpm/

Group page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/tcpm/

Charter: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-tcpm/

TCP is currently the Internet's predominant transport protocol. TCPM
is the working group within the IETF that handles small TCP changes,
i.e., minor extensions to TCP algorithms and protocol mechanisms.
The TCPM WG serves several purposes:

* The WG mostly focuses on maintenance issues (e.g., bug fixes) and
modest changes to the protocol, algorithms, and interfaces that
maintain TCP's utility.

* The WG is a venue for moving current TCP specifications along the
standards track (as community energy is available for such efforts).

* The WG maintains Multipath TCP (MPTCP) and is a home for minor
MPTCP enhancements including updates to the existing multipath
congestion control.

The preferred venue for Congestion control work is generally CCWG or ICCRG.
However, TCPM can take on such work in coordination with those groups,
especially if it relies on TCP-specific protocol elements.

New TCPM milestones that fall within the scope specified within the
charter can be added after consensus on acceptance in the working
group and approval by the responsible Area Director.

Milestones:

  Nov 2022 - Submit RFC6937bis document to the IESG for publication as a
  Proposed Standard RFC

  Dec 2022 - Submit specification of more accurate ECN feedback in TCP to the
  IESG for publication as a Proposed Standard RFC

  Jan 2023 - Submit document on adding Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN)
  to TCP Control Packets to the IESG for publication as Experimental RFC

  Dec 2023 - Submit document on a TCP Extended Data Offset Option to the IESG
  as a Proposed Standard RFC

  Oct 2024 - Submit document on adding acknowledgement rate handling for TCP
  to the IESG for publication as Experimental RFC