# RFCLLM: Evaluating LLMs' Reasoning Ability of Network Protocol State Machines

> Tests reasoning over protocol state machines using 1,482 questions across 16 protocols. Four context settings distinguish RFC retrieval from reasoning over supplied transitions; tasks cover next states, conditions, predecessor states and paths.

- Authors: Anqi Chen; Dan Goldwasser; Cristina Nita-Rotaru
- Venue: Findings of EMNLP 2026
- Status: Conference accepted
- Publication / posting date: 2026 (exact date not verified)
- Date source: Author arXiv record reports acceptance to Findings of EMNLP 2026; a proceedings publication date was not verified.
- First arXiv submission: September 11, 2026
- arXiv: 2609.13389
- Reviewed arXiv version: v1
- Sources reviewed: 2026-10-20
- Added to the catalog: 2026-10-20
- Original paper: <https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13389>
- PDF: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.13389v1>
- Code: <https://anonymous.4open.science/r/rfcllm>
- BibTeX: <https://awesomerea.org/papers/citations/paper-rfcllm.bib>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/papers/paper-rfcllm/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/papers/paper-rfcllm/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/papers/paper-rfcllm/index.md)

## Scope and limitations

Evaluates reasoning, not a new FSM extractor or implementation reconstruction. Gold FSMs were prepared by one author; judge agreement was checked on 50 instances by the three authors. Packet formats, error handling, configurations and real code mappings are outside scope. Results depend on context, judges and output budgets.

## Why it fits this collection

Provides a bounded validation reference for using LLMs to interpret recovered or documented protocol models.

## Publication and review notes

Reviewed September 11 v1. Acceptance is author-reported. The author-linked anonymous artifact exposes README, scripts and results; its UI lists access until December 16, 2026, but no full Git commit or root license was established.

## Primary sources

1. <https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13389v1>
2. <https://arxiv.org/html/2609.13389v1>
3. <https://anonymous.4open.science/r/rfcllm/README.md>

## About this entry

Reviewed against the paper and its primary sources. Cite the original authors using the linked paper or BibTeX.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.