Error and Flow Control Protocol (EFCP) Design and Implementation: A Data Transfer Protocol for the Recursive InterNetwork Architecture

The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) is a back to basics computer network architecture that offers solutions for current and future networks. This paper presents the Error and Flow Control Protocol (EFCP), the data transfer protocol of RINA, and its first complete implementation. It will be shown that EFCP allows to fulfil both the RINA-required features and the general requirements of a transport protocol. Also, the paper explains how flexible and generic is EFCP to support different operational requirements when it is used in different layers of a RINA network, via the separation of EFCP mechanisms and policies. Finally, the paper discusses IRATI, the RINA implementation for the Linux/OS and presents a number of experiments that illustrate the main features of EFCP design.