Block acknowledgment: redesigning the window protocol

A window protocol based on the block acknowledgment method, in which acknowledgment message has two numbers, m and n, to acknowledge the reception of all data messages with sequence numbers ranging from m to n, is discussed. In the window protocol, message sequence numbers are taken from a finite domain and both message disorder and loss can be tolerated. An initial version of the protocol that uses a simplified timeout action and unbounded sequence numbers is presented, the simplified timeout action in the protocol is replaced by a sophisticated one without disturbing the protocol's correctness, and the unbounded sequence numbers are replaced by bounded ones while preserving the protocol's correctness. Remarks concerning other variations of the protocol are also presented.<
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