I would also like to see RFC3448bis include Faster Restart.
However, the two specs serve different purposes and have different
"half-lives". RFC3448bis is being pushed towards quick publication
as Proposed Standard, I believe. FR is not suitable for that
track. Which will leave us in the unfortunate situation of the
main implementations *still* depending on multiple drafts, despite
the TFRC update. Not sure how I feel about that.
Of course, the underlying TCP congestion control mechanisms (slow-start,
congestion avoidance, ECN, retransmit timers, SACK blocks, initial
windows,
etc.) are not all contained in a single RFC either. And they are not
static, but
are in flux. Personally, I would say that this is a sign of a
healthy congestion
control mechanism, that it changes and is refined as our experience with
it grows, and as it is studied in increasing diverse environments (e.g.,
levels of link bandwidth and of stat mux, application
characteristics, types of
links, etc.)
So my guess is that a TFRC that is completely specified in a single
stable
RFC is likely to be a sign of a dead congestion control mechanism.
Unfortunately for those of us who are trying to wrap up various
pieces of
old work.
- Sally
http://www.icir.org/floyd/
