Re: [newtrk] IESG comments on ISD proposal

["Spencer Dawkins" <[e-mail]>]

> More to the point, the original claim, viz. "the Internet runs 
> mainly on
> Proposed Standards", still hasn't been substantiated.  Even if you 
> ignore
> the same *type* of process, there is no way that IP is a mere 
> "Proposed
> Standard".

I did not originate this assertion, but I believe it and have repeated 
it in public, so...

When I have repeated this assertion, it's often been in the context of 
TCP.

You might think that TCP is a full standard, since RFC 793 TCP is a 
full standard, but if you watch any modern TCP with tcpdump or some 
equivalent, you will discover that the TCP is implementing a larger 
initial congestion window, fast start/congestion avoidance, fast 
retransmit, fast reecovery, SACK, window scaling, maybe Eifel, and 
probably some other items that I never heard of or forgot. All of 
these are proposed standards.

RFC 793 TCP was prone to persistent oscillating congestion in network 
conditions encountered during the late 1980s. One can only imagine 
what the Internet would be like today, if it was running on THIS full 
standard. Happily, the Internet is running on proposed standards.

Your mileage may vary, if you're thinking of different protocols, of 
course.

Spencer 


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