Assignment 1: TCP over a Reliable Network

This assignment is divided into three main tasks:

  • 3-way handshake

  • Data transfer

  • Connection tear-down

In this assignment, you are allowed to assume that the network is completely reliable. This means that any TCP segment you send is guaranteed to arrive without delay (chiTCP will ensure this under the hood). So, you do not have to worry about retransmissions or about packets arriving out of order.

Implementing the TCP 3-way handshake

In tcp.c you must implement the following:

  • Handling event APPLICATION_CONNECT in chitcpd_tcp_state_handle_CLOSED. This corresponds to handling the OPEN Call in the CLOSED STATE in [RFC9293 3.10.1].

  • Doing an initial implementation of the chitcpd_tcp_handle_packet function, that only covers the arrival of segments in the LISTEN, SYN_SENT, and SYN_RCVD states, as specified in [RFC9293 3.7.10].

Sending and receiving data

This involves handling the following events in chitcpd_tcp_state_handle_ESTABLISHED:

  • Event APPLICATION_SEND. This corresponds to handling the SEND Call in the ESTABLISHED STATE in [RFC9293 3.10.2]. Take into account that the chisocket layer already takes care of putting data in the send buffer. So, this event notifies your TCP implementation that there is new data in the send buffer, and that it should be sent if possible.

  • Event APPLICATION_RECEIVE. This corresponds to handling the RECEIVE Call in the ESTABLISHED STATE in [RFC9293 3.10.3]. Take into account that the chisocket layer already takes care of retrieving data from the receive buffer and handing it to the application layer. This event notifies your TCP implementation that space has become available in the buffer, and you should update the TCP internal variables accordingly.

You will also have to complete the implementation of the chitcpd_tcp_handle_packet function, to handle the arrival of segments in the ESTABLISHED state, as specified in [RFC9293 3.7.10]. HOwever, at this point, you can ignore the handing of FIN packets, as well as the arrival of packets in the FIN_WAIT_1, FIN_WAIT_2, CLOSE_WAIT, CLOSING, and LAST_ACK states.

Connection tear-down

This involves handling the APPLICATION_CLOSE event in the following handlers:

  • chitcpd_tcp_state_handle_ESTABLISHED

  • chitcpd_tcp_state_handle_CLOSE_WAIT

Both of these correspond to handling the CLOSE Call in the ESTABLISHED STATE and CLOSE-WAIT STATE in [RFC9293 3.10.4].

You also need to complete the implementation of the chitcpd_tcp_handle_packet function to handle FIN packets in the ESTABLISHED state, as well as the arrival of packets in the FIN_WAIT_1, FIN_WAIT_2, CLOSE_WAIT, CLOSING, and LAST_ACK states, as specified in [RFC9293 3.7.10].

Take into account that, when the application layer requests that a connection be closed, it does not instantly trigger a TCP connection teardown. Instead, the FIN packet should be sent after all outstanding data in the send buffer has been sent and acknowledged.

In other words, when the APPLICATION_CLOSE event is received, the connection teardown should happen only if the send buffer is empty. Otherwise, you should internally flag the socket as having to be closed once the send buffer is empty. This could happen if you have sent data, and the APPLICATION_CLOSE event arrives while you’re still waiting for that data to be ACK’d.

The tcp_data_t struct already includes a boolean closing field, but you are allowed to add additional fields to tcp_data_t if necessary.