tcp_ecn_permitted

Description

Controls Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) support.

If this parameter is set to 0, TCP does not negotiate with a peer that TCP supports the ECN mechanism.

If this parameter is set to 1 when initiating a connection, TCP does not tell a peer that TCP supports the ECN mechanism.

However, TCP tells a peer that it supports the ECN mechanism when accepting a new incoming connection request, if the peer indicates that the peer supports the ECN mechanism in the SYN segment.

If this parameter is set to 2, in addition to negotiating with a peer on the ECN mechanism when accepting connections, TCP indicates in the outgoing SYN segment that it supports the ECN mechanism when TCP makes active outgoing connections.

Refer to RFC 3168 for information on ECN.

Default

1 (passive enabled)

Range

0 (disabled), 1 (passive enabled), 2 (active enabled)

Dynamic?

Yes

When to Change

ECN can help TCP in handling congestion control better. However, there are existing TCP implementations, firewalls, NATs, and other network devices that are confused by this mechanism. These devices do not comply to the IETF standard.

Because of these devices, the default value of this parameter is set to 1. In rare cases, passive enabling can still cause problems. Set the parameter to 0 only if absolutely necessary.

Commitment Level

Unstable