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File formats:

Status:

BEST CURRENT PRACTICE

Obsoleted by:

RFC 8085

Authors:

L. Eggert
G. Fairhurst

Stream:

IETF

Source:

tsvwg (wit)

Cite this RFC:TXT  | XML  |  BibTeX

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC5405

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Abstract

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) provides a minimal message-passingtransport that has no inherent congestion control mechanisms.Because congestion control is critical to the stable operation of theInternet, applications and upper-layer protocols that choose to useUDP as an Internet transport must employ mechanisms to preventcongestion collapse and to establish some degree of fairness withconcurrent traffic. This document provides guidelines on the use ofUDP for the designers of unicast applications and upper-layerprotocols. Congestion control guidelines are a primary focus, butthe document also provides guidance on other topics, includingmessage sizes, reliability, checksums, and middlebox traversal. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for theInternet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions forimprovements.

For the definition ofStatus,seeRFC 2026.

For the definition ofStream, seeRFC 8729.