RFC 8684: TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
In plain English — editorial summary, not part of the RFC
TCP/IP communication is currently restricted to a single path per connection, yet multiple paths often exist between peers. The simultaneous use of these multiple paths for a TCP/IP session would improve resource usage within the network and thus improve user experience through higher throughput and improved resilience to network failure. Multipath TCP provides the ability to simultaneously use multiple paths between peers. This document presents a set of extensions to traditional TCP to support multipath operation. The protocol offers the same type of service to applications as TCP (i.e., a reliable bytestream), and it provides the components necessary to establish and use multiple TCP flows across potentially disjoint paths. This document specifies v1 of Multipath TCP, obsoleting v0 as specified in RFC 6824, through clarifications and modifications primarily driven by deployment experience.
Document record
- Document ID
- RFC8684
- Published
- March 2020
- Authors
- A. Ford; C. Raiciu; M. Handley; O. Bonaventure; C. Paasch
- Status
- PROPOSED STANDARD
- Stream
- IETF
- Area
- tsv
- Pages
- 68
- Also known as
- —
- Obsoletes:
- RFC 6824
Topics
Related documents
Ranked automatically by shared keywords, IETF area and stream — not by editorial selection.
- RFC 9897Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple AddressesCurrent
January 2026
- RFC 6356Coupled Congestion Control for Multipath Transport ProtocolsCurrent
October 2011
- RFC 8699Coupled Congestion Control for RTP MediaCurrent
January 2020
- RFC 8548Cryptographic Protection of TCP Streams (tcpcrypt)Current
May 2019
- RFC 8547TCP-ENO: Encryption Negotiation OptionCurrent
May 2019
- RFC 8087The Benefits of Using Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN)Current
March 2017
- RFC 8041Use Cases and Operational Experience with Multipath TCPCurrent
January 2017
- RFC 4850Declarative Public Extension Key for Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) Node ArchitectureObsoleted
April 2007
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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.
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