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Date:      Mon, 23 Nov 1998 18:41:18 +0000
From:      "Nick A. Fikouras" <nick@dcs.shef.ac.uk>
To:        bmah@CA.Sandia.GOV
Cc:        Andrey Tchoritch <andy@moldsat.md>, "Bruce A. Mah" <bmah@california.sandia.gov>, "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Timestamps and nonces in IP packets
Message-ID:  <3659AC4E.376CB6A@dcs.shef.ac.uk>
References:  <199811221910.LAA13033@stennis.ca.sandia.gov>

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Bruce A. Mah wrote:

> If memory serves me right, Andrey Tchoritch wrote:
> > On Sun, 22 Nov 1998, Bruce A. Mah wrote:
> > > If memory serves me right, "Nick A. Fikouras" wrote:
> > >
> > > > I've noticed while monitoring TCP communications between FBSD machines
> > > > that every IP packet contains timestamps and nonces that take up an
> > > > extra 40 octets in the packets. Does anybody know how I can turn off
> > > > this setting?
> > >
> > > Haven't seen anyone write an answer to this yet, so:
> > >
> > > Edit /etc/rc.conf, and set:
> > >
> > > tcp_extensions="NO"
> > >
> >
> >
> > What is this extensions for?
>
> The timestamp option in the TCP header allows to sender of a TCP segment to
> compute the round-trip time (RTT) for every segment sent and acknowledged.  It
> places a timestamp in every outgoing segment it sends...the receiver (assuming
> it support this option) copies this timestamp back to an appropriate field in
> the ACK it sends back for that segment.
>

Why can't the TCP sequence number be used instead. TCP uses that sequence numbers
anyway to acknowledge the safe receipt of data.

> Without the use of the timestamp extension, the sending TCP can only estimate
> the RTT once per round trip.
>

I thought it always requires a round trip to measure the Round Trip Time.

> IIRC, the other option controlled by tcp_extensions is window scaling.  This
> allows larger TCP congestion windows than the 64K allows by the original
> specification, by multiplying the window sizes by an agreed-upon power of 2.
> Useful mostly for high-delay, high-bandwidth paths, such as satellite links.
>
> Bruce.
>

Thank you for your response Bruce. 8)

nick


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