Spud -- Session Protocol Underneath Datagrams
About Spud	English (USA)
The deployment of new transport protocols as well as the extension of existing IETF-defined transport protocols faces the continuing challenge of how to make these protocols robust against packet and flow modification in the Internet at the hands of middleboxes. The increasing deployment of these packet modifications have made expectations about packet handling behaviors implicit. For example, a TCP packet with the SYN and ACK flags set not only synchronizes sequence numbers and set up state on both endpoints for a TCP connection (its explicit meaning), it also confirms network address translation (NAT) mappings along the path as well as signifying to any firewalls along the path that the endpoint has accepted the connection (implicit meanings). One strategy to resolve this tussle, identified and discussed during the recent IAB workshop on Stack Evolution in a Middlebox Internet (SEMI), would be to provide a mechanism for applications at the end as well as boxes along the path to explicitly declare their assumptions and intentions. This list is for discussion of the definition of such a mechanism, as part of a pre-WG activity to determine what can be done. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the Spud Archives.
Using Spud
To post a message to all the list members, send email to spud@ietf.org. You can subscribe to the list, or change your existing subscription, in the sections below.
Subscribing to Spud
Subscribe to Spud by filling out the following form. You will be sent email requesting confirmation, to prevent others from gratuitously subscribing you. This is a private list, which means that the list of members is not available to non-members. Your email address:   Your name (optional):   You may enter a privacy password below. This provides only mild security, but should prevent others from messing with your subscription. Do not use a valuable password as it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext. If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your password when you edit your personal options. Once a month, your password will be emailed to you as a reminder. Pick a password:   Reenter password to confirm:   Which language do you prefer to display your messages? English (USA)   Would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest? No Yes
Spud Subscribers
(The subscribers list is only available to the list members.) Enter your address and password to visit the subscribers list: Address: Password:    To unsubscribe from Spud, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options enter your subscription email address: If you leave the field blank, you will be prompted for your email address