The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'End-to-end Performance Implications of Slow Links' <draft-ietf-pilc-slow-06.txt> as a BCP. This document is the product of the Performance Implications of Link Characteristics Working Group. The IESG contact persons are Allison Mankin and Scott Bradner. Technical Summary This document offers performance-related recommendations for users of network paths that traverse "very low bit-rate" links. The meaning of "very low bit-rate" is loosely those links where hosts can saturate available bandwidth. These recommendations explicitly cover connections that traverse 56 Kb/second modem links or 4.8 Kb/second wireless access links - both of which are widely deployed. The recommendations do not offer any new technology, but rather give analysis and advice for using existing standards track RFCs, such as RFCs 2507 and 2509 (header compression) and RFC 3042 (limited transmit). The specification has some recommendations in common with RFC 2689, "Providing integrated services over low-bitrate links", especially in areas like header compression, but it differs from that by focusing focusing on traditional data applications for which "best-effort delivery" is appropriate and discussing performance mitigation rather than service support. Working Group Summary The working group came to consensus for advancement of this specification with little difficulty. Protocol Quality The specification was reviewed for the IESG by Allison Mankin. Many or most of the recommendations have been reported from practice. Note to RFC Editor: Please remove the "Changes since last draft" section prior to publication.
