1. Motivation and Design Philosophy
This section describes the problem that Tau is intended to solve, as
well as some architectural objectives for the solution and how they
relate to the elements of Tau.
2. Tau's Model of Operation
This section describes the environment in which Tau is intended to
operate, including the services it expects from lower layers and the
interfaces it presents to applications. Tau's basic packet processing
method is also outlined in this section.
3. Protocol Function Interface
Tau defines a specific API for interaction with individual protocol
functions such as connection management and error detection; this
interface varies depending upon the protocol function. This section
defines the four classes of protocol functions (forward data-touching,
forward control, backward control, and other), and specifies the
methods that make of the interface for each.
4. Metaheader Specification
The Tau metaheader supports the (only) functions provided by the
Tau framework itself, namely multiplexing and protocol composition.
This section specifies the (only) "bits on the wire" defined by
Tau itself and defines the
basic requirements for interoperability between Tau implementations.
5. References