Re: [tcpm] Faster application handshakes with SYN/ACK payloads

On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 2:44 AM, Stefanos Harhalakis <v13@v13.gr> wrote:
> Also, this is not exactly "data" as there is space for a very small amount of
> information (some bits). Considering the possibilities of this, it can be
> used in many situations such as:
> * HTTP or other protocols that use a well-known-port, to negotiate different
>  behavior without introducing a new port number (SSL over port 80?).
> * Cryptographic applications
> * Anything that someone out there can think of. 8 bits (or a little more) of
>  information can be used for many things.

Firstly, one counterargument that several have used in the past is
that a round-trip-time is unimportant and any such scheme can be
achieved without TCP changes by burning an RTT. I disagree with this,
but I can't release any data to back up that assertion, so it's still
a reasonable counterargument.

I also wonder how much of an advantage 8 bits, as opposed to a single
bit, gives you. Although, once you have defined an option, 8 bits is
almost as cheap as a single bit, so 'why not' is a reasonable
position.

Just from a personal point of view. I'm now using information from DNS
and from previous connections to the same host to achieve this "early"
information entirely within userspace. However, I still needed a new
port because "transparent" proxies aren't very transparent when you
stop speaking HTTP over port 80.

AGL

-- 
Adam Langley agl@imperialviolet.org http://www.imperialviolet.org
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