MFTP - Yet Another Transfer Protocol.

I Find Karma (adam@cs.caltech.edu)
Mon, 17 Feb 97 12:27:13 PST

> The Multicast File Transfer Protocol (MFTP) is a protocol that operates
> above UDP in the application layer to provide a reliable means for
> transferring files from a sender to up to thousands (potentially millions
> with network "aggregators" or relays) of multiple receivers simultaneously
> over a multicast group in a multicast IP enabled network. The protocol
> consists of two parts; an administrative protocol to set up and tear down
> groups and sessions, and a data transfer protocol used to send the actual
> file reliably and simultaneously to the multiple recipients residing in the
> group.

"The protocol consists of two parts: administration... and a data
transfer..." Same old story. Should it make a difference that the
receivers are in a multicast group, or is that just a pattern that can
be abstracted away at another level? Certainly, some optimizations
exist using the knowledge that the transfer is to multicast receivers,
but fundamentally isn't this Yet Another Transfer Protocol?

Adam

PS - meta-information:
> Title : StarBurst Multicast File Transfer Protocol (MFTP)
> Specification
> Author(s) : K. Miller, K. Robertson, A. Tweedly, M. White
> Filename : draft-miller-mftp-spec-02.txt
> Pages : 57
> Date : 02/13/1997
>
> Internet-Drafts are available by mail.
> Send a message to: mailserv@ds.internic.net. In the body type:
> "FILE /internet-drafts/draft-miller-mftp-spec-02.txt".