[comp.protocols.tcp-ip] TCP/IP using Telebit Trailblazers

jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (10/04/88)

Serial Line IP (recently discussed on this list in another context) runs
fairly well over Trailblazers.  There are some inefficiencies under some
conditions because minimum-length TCP packets fall into a length range that
the Trailblazer isn't optimized for.  Thus, TCP acks cost more bandwidth
than one might expect.

SLIP is described by RFC 1055, and commercial implementations are available
from FTP Software (for DOS PCs), cisco (terminal servers/routers), Encore
(terminal servers) and Spider Systems (???).  Public-domain source code for
4BSD Unix exists, too, and as far as I know, all the implementations
interoperate correctly.

Efforts are underway to develop a more general serial line protocol to
replace SLIP, but for now, it is a reasonable choice.

James VanBokkelen
FTP Software Inc.

PS:  Let me know if I missed any implementations, I think I know them all...