SCTP

**Internet protocol suite**
Application layer	HTTP, SMTP, FTP, SSH, IRC, SNMP ...
Transport layer	TCP, UDP, SCTP, RTP, DCCP ...
Network layer	IPv4, IPv6, ARP, IPX ...
Data link layer	Ethernet, 802.11 WiFi, Token ring, FDDI, ...

SCTP, or Stream Control Transmission Protocol is a new transport layer protocol (2000) defined by the IETF. The protocol is defined in RFC 2960, and an introductory text is provided by RFC 3286.

As a transport protocol, SCTP is equivalent in a sense to TCP or UDP. Indeed it provides some similar services as TCP, ensuring reliable, in-sequence transport of messages. Whilst TCP is byte-oriented, SCTP deals with framed messages.

A major contribution of SCTP is multi-homing support, where one (or both) endpoints of a connection can consist of more than one IP address, enabling transparent fail-over between hosts or network cards.

SCTP was originally intended for the transport of telephony (SS7) protocols over IP, with the goal of duplicating some of the reliability attributes of the SS7 signaling network in IP. This IETF effort is known as SIGTRAN. In the meantime, other uses have been proposed for the protocol.

External links

RFC 2960 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2960.txt)
RFC 3286 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3286.txt)
http://www.sigtran.org
http://www.sctp.org
http://www.openss7.org
http://www.sctp.de

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