SCTP: state of the art in research, products, and technical challenges

The stream control transmission protocol (STCP) is being standardized by the IEFT as a reliable transport protocol to transport SS7signaling messages over IP networks. Due to its attractive features such as multistreaming and multihoming, SCTP has received much attention from the network community, in terms of both research and development. This article introduces the main features of SCTP, and discusses the state of the art in SCTP research and development activities. We also provide a survey of the available products that use SCTP. Finally with a view to stimulating further research in this area, the challenges faced by the SCTP research community are identified.