#	README.SCTP,v 1.3 2003/04/24 14:02:09 gthaker Exp	

This document provides general information about the SCTP protocol.  


Introduction
=============
SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) is a new transport layer protocol 
developed by the IETF and defined by RFC2960.  Originally designed for the 
transmission of message-oriented applications such as the transportation of 
signaling data for PSTNs (Public Switched Telephone Networks), SCTP can be used
in any application that uses TCP.  

	Major Features
	--------------

	- Direct support for multi-homing
	- Support for multiple streams per connection (known as associations) 
	  to reduce "head of line" blocking problems.   
    	- Four way handshake reducing the possibility for blind denial of
      	  service attacks.
    	- Adjustment of congestion control parameters
    	- Cookie mechanism to protect against "SYN" attacks

API's
========

The SCTP drafts have defined several different API's.  The first reference 
implementation was a user level library.  This allowed an application to use 
SCTP through several functions and callbacks.  As of this writing a 
transition from the user level libraries to the kernel is underway.

The IETF TSVWG (Transport Area Working Group) has published a draft 
(draft-ietf-tsvwg-sctpsocket-06.txt) that defines a mapping between SCTP and 
the BSD sockets interface.  This interface has made porting TCP applications to
SCTP as simple as changing one socket call.

	OpenSS7
	--------
	OpenSS7 has defined, a similar BSD style sockets interface.  It is 
	slightly different from the one defined by the IETF, however, at the
 	time of our evaluation it was the most stable implementation.  

	Please see README.OpenSS7 for more details.   


Resources
===========

	RFCs
	-----
	RFC2960: Stream Control Transmission Protocol
	RFC3309: Stream Control Transmission Protocol Checksum Change

	Internet-Drafts
	----------------
	
	draft-ietf-tsvwg-sctpsocket-06.txt: 
		Sockets API Extensions for Stream Control Transmission Protocol

	draft-ietf-tsvwg-sctpimpguide-08.txt
		Stream Control Transmission Protocol Implementer's Guide

	Internet Links
	---------------
	IETF: Transport Area Working Group (tsvwg):
		http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/tsvwg-charter.html

	The OpenSS7 Project: http://www.openss7.org/sctp.html

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