IP and Related Technologies RFCs

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

The standards for TCP/IP and related technologies are published in a series of documents called Requests for Comments (RFCs). RFCs are an evolving series of reports, proposals for protocols, and protocol standards that describe the internal workings of TCP/IP and the Internet.

Although TCP/IP standards are always published as RFCs, not all RFCs specify standards. RFCs are authored by individuals who voluntarily write and submit a draft proposal for a new protocol or specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other working groups. Submitted drafts are first reviewed by a technical expert, a task force, or an RFC editor, and then assigned a status.

If a draft passes this initial review stage, it is circulated to the larger Internet community for a period of further comment and review, and assigned an RFC number. This RFC number remains constant.

If changes are made to the proposed specification, drafts that are revised or updated are circulated by using a new RFC (a number higher than the original RFC number) to identify more recent documents.

There are six status assignments for RFCs in the standards process, as shown in the following table.

Status Description

Standard protocol

An official standard protocol of the Internet.

Draft standard protocol

Under active consideration and review to become a standard protocol.

Proposed standard protocol

A protocol that in the future may become a standard protocol.

Experimental protocol

A protocol designed for experimental purposes. An experimental protocol is not intended for operational use.

Informational protocol

A protocol developed by another standards organization that is included for the convenience of the Internet community.

Historic protocol

Protocols that have been superseded or obsoleted by other protocols.

The following table shows the RFCs supported by, and related to, the TCP/IP protocol in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and those supported by Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

RFC Description

RFC Number and Title

Supported in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Supported in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

System support for IP

791 - Internet Protocol (1981)

Yes

Yes

System support for IP

950 - Internet Standard Subnetting Procedure (1985)

Yes

Yes

System support for IP

919 - Broadcasting Internet Datagrams (1984)

Yes

Yes

System support for IP

922 - Broadcasting Internet Datagrams in the Presence of Subnets (1984)

Yes

Yes

System support for IP

972 - Password Generator Protocol

No

No

System support for IP

1112 -Host Extensions for IP Multicasting (1989)

Yes

Yes

System support for IP

894 -  Transmission of IP Datagrams over Ethernet Networks (1984)

Yes

Yes

System support for ICMP

1256 - ICMP Router Discovery Messages

Yes

Yes

System support for IGMPv3

3376 - Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 3

Yes

Yes

System support for multicast protocols

2236 - Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 2 (1997)

Yes

Yes

Support for IPv4/IPv6

Dual stack operation (threshold)

Native IPv6

Yes

Yes

system support QoS features

2474, 2475, or 3260

 No

No

System support for QoS features

DIFSERV Code Point (DSCP)

 Yes

 Yes

System support for QoS features

Traffic classification based on layer 3 and 4 criteria

 Yes

 Yes

System support for TCP

793 - TCP (1981)

 Yes

Yes

System support for TCP

2581 - TCP Congestion Control (1999)

 Yes

Yes

Support for UDP

768 - User Datagram Protocol

 Yes

Yes

System support for Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP v2)

1350 - The TFTP Protocol (Revision 2)

Yes

Yes

Support for FTP security extensions

2228 - FTP Security Extensions

No

No