This Working Group is looking at issues involved in
connection-oriented (or stream- or flow-oriented) internet level
protocols.  The long-term intent is to identify the issues involved,
to understand them, to identify algorithms that address them, and to
produce a specification for a protocol that incorporates what the
Working Group has learned.  To achieve this goal, the Group is
defining a two year collaborative research effort based on a common
hardware and software base.  This will include implementing different
algorithms that address the issues involved and performing experiments
to compare them.  On a shorter time-line, ST is a stream-oriented
protocol that is currently in use in the Internet.  A short-term goal
of this Working Group is to define a new specification for ST, called
ST-2, inviting participation by any interested people.  MCHIP and the
Flow Protocol have also been discussed because they include relevant
ideas.