IP Protocols

1. 2016-04-01 at 2:46 AM UTC

   #1
   

   SBTlauien African Astronaut
   So from my research, I've noticed that there are a lot of IP protocols(over 140) but only a few get attention. TCP, UDP, and ICMP specifically. I started a little program that'll allow me to send an IP packet with another packet of my choice(so far just TCP, but eventually maybe UDP, ICMP, and the other 140+ protocols) encapsulated into it, from my phone, using a nice GUI.
   
   I was just wondering if this is worthwhile.
   
   I have IPV4 and IPV6 interfaces set up so that each bit for each of the header fields can easily be selected with option buttons, and so that other things(like the length) can be typed in(although this'll be optional because the C program will usually calculate the length). I was thinking about automating it to send random values with each packet(all 140) and then wait to see what kinds of responses I receive from each, just for figuring out what protocol a system is using on a specific port.
   
   Yay or nay?
2. 2016-04-01 at 3:11 AM UTC

   #2
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage
   It sounds like an interesting project but I'm not sure how much use it will be. TCP and UDP are all people really care about because there's basically only one interesting question you can ask after the IP level and before implementing useful systems which is "do I want to provide consistency guarantees or is that an application level concern?". If it's the former then TCP is pretty much king of the hill, it gives you everything you want and probably better than you could do it and if it's the latter then every interesting data guarantee can be provided for at the next level up. They represent two extremes and pretty much every middle value is over optimization for a narrow use case.
3. 2016-04-01 at 3:15 AM UTC

   #3
   

   aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition
   1. it'll be more difficult than you think, but good luck - calculating header hashes etc. is not fun
   2. lanny - I've always though about the possibility of writing a more efficient version of the TCP protocol; less overheads etc. for faster transmission and lower latency. would be interesting even if nothing more than a thought exercise