  We study the necessary conditions for obtaining infrared finite solutions
from the Schwinger-Dyson equation governing the dynamics of the gluon
propagator. The equation in question is set up in the Feynman gauge of the
background field method, thus capturing a number of desirable features. Most
notably, and in contradistinction to the standard formulation, the gluon
self-energy is transverse order-by-order in the dressed loop expansion, and
separately for gluonic and ghost contributions. Various subtle field-theoretic
issues, such as renormalization group invariance and regularization of
quadratic divergences, are briefly addressed. The infrared and ultraviolet
properties of the obtained solutions are examined in detail, and the allowed
range for the effective gluon mass is presented.
