RFC 8311: Relaxing Restrictions on Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Experimentation
In plain English — editorial summary, not part of the RFC
This memo updates RFC 3168, which specifies Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) as an alternative to packet drops for indicating network congestion to endpoints. It relaxes restrictions in RFC 3168 that hinder experimentation towards benefits beyond just removal of loss. This memo summarizes the anticipated areas of experimentation and updates RFC 3168 to enable experimentation in these areas. An Experimental RFC in the IETF document stream is required to take advantage of any of these enabling updates. In addition, this memo makes related updates to the ECN specifications for RTP in RFC 6679 and for the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) in RFCs 4341, 4342, and 5622. This memo also records the conclusion of the ECN nonce experiment in RFC 3540 and provides the rationale for reclassification of RFC 3540 from Experimental to Historic; this reclassification enables new experimental use of the ECT(1) codepoint.
Document record
- Document ID
- RFC8311
- Published
- January 2018
- Authors
- D. Black
- Status
- PROPOSED STANDARD
- Stream
- IETF
- Area
- wit
- Pages
- 20
- Also known as
- —
Topics
Related documents
Ranked automatically by shared keywords, IETF area and stream — not by editorial selection.
- RFC 8257Data Center TCP (DCTCP): TCP Congestion Control for Data CentersCurrent
October 2017
- RFC 9330Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) Internet Service: ArchitectureCurrent
January 2023
- RFC 9331The Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Protocol for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)Current
January 2023
- RFC 9332Dual-Queue Coupled Active Queue Management (AQM) for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)Current
January 2023
- RFC 9599Guidelines for Adding Congestion Notification to Protocols that Encapsulate IPCurrent
August 2024
- RFC 9601Propagating Explicit Congestion Notification across IP Tunnel Headers Separated by a ShimCurrent
August 2024
- RFC 9768More Accurate Explicit Congestion Notification (AccECN) Feedback in TCPCurrent
April 2026
- RFC 6040Tunnelling of Explicit Congestion NotificationUpdated
November 2010
Also filed under
About this page
The document record above — title, authors, date, status, stream, area, relationships, DOI and errata — is imported verbatim from the public RFC Editor index. The “in plain English” section is editorial: written by The metasystema editorial team, not part of the RFC. Where the two differ, the RFC text governs.
Last checked against the RFC Editor index on . RFCs are never revised after publication; changes are issued as new documents.
Data sources · Editorial policy · Report a correction · What is an RFC?