[core] RFC 8323 on CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) over TCP, TLS, and WebSockets

Carsten Bormann

2018-02-15 06:41:14 UTC

This took a lot longer to complete than we thought it would.

Thanks to Alexey Melnikov for making it happen.

Special thanks to Brian Raymor for taking on the various fragments we had, as the editor and diligently turning them into a good document.

Of course, thanks also to the RFC editor, the other esteemed co-authors, the contributors (there were too many authors to list them all as authors), the Working Group, and all other people who provided input and comments!
(See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8323#page-52 for what surely is an incomplete list.)

More interops are next.
In the first interop, it was amazing to experience how low-complexity CoAP over TCP/TLS has become.
TCP is often not a good match for constrained node networks, but if you do need to use it for some reason (such as IPv4 NAT traversal), adding CoAP on top of it is extremely easy.
CoAP over WebSockets now provides a good way to do CoAP out of a JavaScript program running in a browser before browsers learn to do this natively.

Grüße, Carsten

Post by r***@rfc-editor.org
A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.
RFC 8323
Title: CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) over
TCP, TLS, and WebSockets
Author: C. Bormann,
S. Lemay,
H. Tschofenig,
K. Hartke,
B. Silverajan,
B. Raymor, Ed.
Status: Standards Track
Stream: IETF
Date: February 2018
Pages: 54
Characters: 110771
Updates: RFC 7641, RFC 7959
I-D Tag: draft-ietf-core-coap-tcp-tls-11.txt
URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8323
DOI: 10.17487/RFC8323
The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), although inspired by
HTTP, was designed to use UDP instead of TCP. The message layer of
CoAP over UDP includes support for reliable delivery, simple
congestion control, and flow control.
Some environments benefit from the availability of CoAP carried over
reliable transports such as TCP or Transport Layer Security (TLS).
This document outlines the changes required to use CoAP over TCP,
TLS, and WebSockets transports. It also formally updates RFC 7641
for use with these transports and RFC 7959 to enable the use of
larger messages over a reliable transport.
This document is a product of the Constrained RESTful Environments Working Group of the IETF.
This is now a Proposed Standard.
STANDARDS TRACK: This document specifies an Internet Standards Track
protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions
for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the Official
Internet Protocol Standards (https://www.rfc-editor.org/standards) for the
standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
This announcement is sent to the IETF-Announce and rfc-dist lists.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, see
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
https://mailman.rfc-editor.org/mailman/listinfo/rfc-dist
For searching the RFC series, see https://www.rfc-editor.org/search
For downloading RFCs, see https://www.rfc-editor.org/retrieve/bulk
Requests for special distribution should be addressed to either the
specifically noted otherwise on the RFC itself, all RFCs are for
unlimited distribution.
The RFC Editor Team
Association Management Solutions, LLC