Re: [multipathtcp] rfc6824bis - RST after MP_FASTCLOSE retransmission

[Olivier Bonaventure <[e-mail]>]

Christoph, François,

>>
>>
>> To mitigate this issue, here is a proposal for rfc6824bis:
>> - When the limit of MP_FASTCLOSE retransmission is reached, a TCP RST
>>    could be sent by host A.
>> - In this scenario, firewall M forwards the TCP RST packet and removes
>>    the connection state.
>>
>> This TCP RST packet could contain the MP_FASTCLOSE option.
> 
> wouldn't this exact same scenario happen with regular TCP as well?

Yes, indeed. The difference in MPTCP is that we have sent a RST on all 
subflows except the one where we sent the MP_FASTCLOSE. In fact, the 
MP_FASTCLOSE that we send indicates that we want to remove state for 
this MPTCP connection and the corresponding subflow.

> 
> For example, host A is sending data while host B at one point decides to
> drop the connection with a TCP RST. This TCP RST gets lost between firewall
> N and M. A will keep on retransmitting its data until it gives up and
> signals an ETIMEDOUT to the application upon which the socket gets silently
> closed.

Agreed, but here we are in a situation where the application has already 
accepted to close the connection.

> If we deem the problem severe enough in MPTCP to address it for the
> MP_FASTCLOSE scenario, then I think it should in general be considered for
> TCP that when a connection times out it must be closed with a TCP RST.

In general, I think that it would be wise for a TCP stack to send a RST 
when the stack decides to remove state for a connection.

For MPTCP, a possible modification to rfc6824bis could be

    o  If Host A does not receive a TCP RST in reply to its MP_FASTCLOSE
       after one retransmission timeout (RTO) (the RTO of the subflow
       where the MPTCP_RST has been sent), it SHOULD retransmit the
       MP_FASTCLOSE.  The number of retransmissions SHOULD be limited to
       avoid this connection from being retained for a long time, but
       this limit is implementation specific.  A RECOMMENDED number is 3.

We could add. a sentence like : After 3 retransmission of the 
MP_FASTCLOSE without any TCP RST in response, Host A MAY send a TCP RST 
when it releases the state for this MPTCP connection.


Olivier