Why datagram service is unreliable

[buck%nrl-css at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:  Joe Buck <buck at nrl-css>


The design decision that datagram service is unreliable was made
by DOD, in the TCP/IP protocol. This is what 4.2 implements.
Over (say) a local network, the chances of a datagram being
garbled or lost are very slim. The virtual circuit service (TCP)
is implemented by using the datagram service (IP) with sequence
numbers and acknowledgements; there is, of course, a speed penalty for
this.

Berkeley did not design the IPC software, as previous messages
to this list have explained. They merely integrated it into 4.2.

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