TRANSMISSION OF DATA

Although a TELNET connection through the network is intrinsically full duplex, the NVT is to be viewed as a half-duplex device operating in a line-buffered mode. That is, unless and until options are negotiated to the contrary, the following default conditions pertain to the transmission of data over the TELNET connection:

1. Insofar as the availability of local buffer space permits, data should be accumulated in the host where it is generated until a complete line of data is ready for transmission, or until some locally-defined explicit signal to transmit occurs. This signal could be generated either by a process or by a human user.

   The motivation for this rule is the high cost, to some hosts, of processing network input interrupts, coupled with the default NVT specification that "echoes" do not traverse the network. Thus, it is reasonable to buffer some amount of data at its source. Many systems take some processing action at the end of each input line (even line printers or card punches frequently tend to work this way), so the transmission should be triggered at the end of a line. On the other hand, a user or process may sometimes find it necessary or desirable to provide data which does not terminate at the end of a line; therefore implementers are cautioned to provide methods of locally signaling that all buffered data should be transmitted immediately.

2. When a process has completed sending data to an NVT printer and has no queued input from the NVT keyboard for further processing (i.e., when a process at one end of a TELNET connection cannot proceed without input from the other end), the process must transmit the TELNET Go Ahead (GA) command.

   This rule is not intended to require that the TELNET GA command be sent from a terminal at the end of each line, since server hosts do not normally require a special signal (in addition to end-of-line or other locally-defined characters) in order to commence processing. Rather, the TELNET GA is designed to help a user's local host operate a physically half duplex terminal which has a "lockable" keyboard such as the IBM 2741. A description of this type of terminal may help to explain the proper use of the GA command.

   The terminal-computer connection is always under control of either the user or the computer. Neither can unilaterally seize control from the other; rather the controlling end must relinguish its control explicitly. At the terminal end, the hardware is constructed so as to relinquish control each time that a "line" is terminated (i.e., when the "New Line" key is typed by the user). When this occurs, the attached (local) computer processes the input data, decides if output should be generated, and if not returns control to the terminal. If output should be generated, control is retained by the computer until all output has been transmitted.

   The difficulties of using this type of terminal through the network should be obvious. The "local" computer is no longer able to decide whether to retain control after seeing an end-of-line signal or not; this decision can only be made by the "remote" computer which is processing the data. Therefore, the TELNET GA command provides a mechanism whereby the "remote" (server) computer can signal the "local" (user) computer that it is time to pass control to the user of the terminal. It should be transmitted at those times, and only at those times, when the user should be given control of the terminal. Note that premature transmission of the GA command may result in the blocking of output, since the user is likely to assume that the transmitting system has paused, and therefore he will fail to turn the line around manually.

The foregoing, of course, does not apply to the user-to-server direction of communication. In this direction, GAs may be sent at any time, but need not ever be sent. Also, if the TELNET connection is being used for process-to-process communication, GAs need not be sent in either direction. Finally, for terminal-to-terminal communication, GAs may be required in neither, one, or both directions. If a host plans to support terminal-to-terminal communication it is suggested that the host provide the user with a means of manually signaling that it is time for a GA to be sent over the TELNET connection; this, however, is not a requirement on the implementer of a TELNET process.

Note that the symmetry of the TELNET model requires that there is an NVT at each end of the TELNET connection, at least conceptually.