SCTP Overview

SCTP is a connection-oriented transport layer protocol that enables reliable transfer of data over IP-based networks. In an IP stack, it exists at a level equivalent to that of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). SCTP offers all the features that are supported by TCP and UDP. It also overcomes certain limitations in TCP and adopts the beneficial features of UDP.

SCTP offers the following features:

SCTP also includes mechanisms, such as checksums, sequence numbers, and selective retransmission of data, to detect data corruption, loss of data, and duplication of data. In addition, it contains different congestion control algorithms to minimize data loss in an unstable network. SCTP supports improved error handling methods to avoid unnecessary retransmission of data. The security methods implemented in SCTP enable the endpoints of an association to avoid SYN-flooding, and to identify stale or unwanted data packets.

Initially, the features of SCTP were designed to transport telephone signaling messages over IP networks. Other applications that require similar features can also use SCTP.

	NOTE: In SCTP, the term “stream” refers to a sequence of user messages that are delivered in sequence, with respect to other messages within the same stream. In TCP, “stream” refers to a sequence of bytes.

HP's implementation of SCTP conforms to the following RFCs and draft RFCs: