Editing Serial number (section)

==Serial number arithmetic==
Serial numbers are often used in [[network protocol]]s. However, most [[sequence number]]s in computer protocols are limited to a fixed number of bits, and will [[arithmetic overflow|wrap around]] after sufficiently many numbers have been allocated. Thus, recently allocated serial numbers may duplicate very old serial numbers, but not other recently allocated serial numbers. To avoid ambiguity with these non-unique numbers, {{IETF RFC|1982}} "Serial Number Arithmetic", defines special rules for calculations involving these kinds of serial numbers.

[[Lollipop sequence numbering|Lollipop sequence number space]]s are a more recent and sophisticated scheme for dealing with finite-sized sequence numbers in protocols.