RFC 23

Network Working Group RFC 23 📜✨

Okay bestie, let's get into this 🦋 RFC 23: TRANSMISSION OF MULTIPLE CONTROL MESSAGES 💖

This one is from G. Gregg at UCSB, dated 16 October 1969. It's a super early one, so it doesn't have a category or status label, and it doesn't obsolete or update any other RFCs 🙈. Iconic start to the whole series, honestly 👑

1. Sending and Receiving Multiple Control Messages 💅

okay so the big idea is that a site's network program has to be ready to handle more than one control message in a single control communication 🎀. Like, it can't just assume it's always one message at a time. It's giving multitasking energy 🧚

1.1. Batching While Blocked 🌸

So here's the situation: while the control link is blocked and waiting on an RFNM, a bunch of control messages for the same remote host can pile up in the queue 📦. Once the link is unblocked, the move is to send all of them together in one communication, because that's the most efficient way to do it ✨. Literally the sending equivalent of finishing your whole to-do list in one go 💀

1.2. Receiving in a Loop 🦋

On the receiving side, the program needs a loop 🔁. It goes back around to decode and act on each successive control message, and it keeps going until the control communication is totally exhausted 😭. So no stopping after the first message, bestie. Keep looping until there's nothing left 🫶