[e2e] Is a non-TCP solution dead?

[Panos Gevros]

Spencer Dawkins typed :
 |"Can we build a transport protocol that outperforms TCP in some
 |environments?" (implicit answer = "almost certainly"), 

my impression is that when people think of TCP - they only think
about its version of congestion control
the specific transmission control behaviour that is implemented
at this particular moment in time (e.g late 80s tahoe, ealy 00s sack+newreno)

otoh nothing in principle prevents *more* than a single behaviour, 
people know this very well (e.g Increasing TCP's initial window rfc just to 
give an example) but hhey're being very (very) cautious (this is understood 
but only up to a point.)
so TCP congestion control has become sort of a sacred cow, there is no space 
for innovation/experimentation there -and developments are very (very) slow - 
if there are several behaviours (inside tcp) the app developpers or 
administrators could just select what is "best", with a little info about 
network path properties - they could solve many of their problemes,
but they risk being called antisocial

Panos



 |while others are working on this problem:
 |
 |"Can we improve TCP's performance in all environments?"
 |(implicit answer="maybe a little").
 |
 |I'm not saying this is the only reason for a discussion
 |disconnect, but it would be enough of a reason by itself.
 |
 |Spencer
 |
 |