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IETF RFC 1235
Coherent File Distribution Protocol
Last modified on Friday, June 21st, 1991
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Network Working Group J. Ioannidis
Request for Comments: 1235 G. Maguire, Jr.
Columbia University
Department of Computer Science
June 1991
The Coherent File Distribution Protocol
 Status of this Memo
This memo describes the Coherent File Distribution Protocol (CFDP).
This is an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested. Please
refer to the current edition of the "IAB Official Protocol Standards"
for the standardization state and status of this protocol.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Introduction
The Coherent File Distribution Protocol (CFDP) has been designed to
speed up one-to-many file transfer operations that exhibit traffic
coherence on media with broadcast capability. Examples of such
coherent file transfers are identical diskless workstations booting
simultaneously, software upgrades being distributed to more than one
machines at a site, a certain "object" (bitmap, graph, plain text,
etc.) that is being discussed in a real-time electronic conference or
class being sent to all participants, and so on.
In all these cases, we have a limited number of servers, usually only
one, and <n> clients (where <n> can be large) that are being sent the
same file. If these files are sent via multiple one-to-one
transfers, the load on both the server and the network is greatly
increased, as the same data are sent <n> times.
We propose a file distribution protocol that takes advantage of the
broadcast nature of the communications medium (e.g., fiber, ethernet,
packet radio) to drastically reduce the time needed for file transfer
and the impact on the file server and the network. While this
protocol was developed to allow the simultaneous booting of diskless
workstations over our experimental packet-radio network, it can be
used in any situation where coherent transfers take place.
CFDP was originally designed as a back-end protocol; a front-end
interface (to convert file names and requests for them to file
handles) is still needed, but a number of existing protocols can be
adapted to use with CFDP. Two such reference applications have been
developed; one is for diskless booting of workstations, a simplified
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 1 
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
BOOTP [3] daemon (which we call sbootpd) and a simple, TFTP-like
front end (which we call vtftp). In addition, our CFDP server has
been extended to provide this front-end interface. We do not
consider this front-end part of the CFDP protocol, however, we
present it in this document to provide a complete example.
The two clients and the CFDP server are available as reference
implementations for anonymous ftp from the site CS.COLUMBIA.EDU
(128.59.16.20) in directory pub/cfdp/. Also, a companion document
("BOOTP extensions to support CFDP") lists the "vendor extensions"
for BOOTP (a-la RFC 1084 [4]) that apply here.
Overview
CFDP is implemented as a protocol on top of UDP [5], but it can be
implemented on top of any protocol that supports broadcast datagrams.
Moreover, when IP multicast [6] implementations become more
widespread, it would make more sense to use a multicast address to
distribute CFDP packets, in order to reduce the overhead of non-
participating machines.
A CFDP client that wants to receive a file first contacts a server to
acquire a "ticket" for the file in question. This server could be a
suitably modified BOOTP server, the equivalent of the tftpd daemon,
etc. The server responds with a 32-bit ticket that will be used in
the actual file transfers, the block size sent with each packet
(which we shall call "BLKSZ" from now on), and the size (in bytes) of
the file being transferred ("FILSZ"). BLKSZ should be a power of
two. A good value for BLKSZ is 512. This way the total packet size
(IPheader+UDPheader+CFDPheader+data=20+8+12+512=552), is kept well
under the magic number 576, the minimum MTU for IP networks [7].
Note that this choice of BLKSZ supports transfers of files that are
up to 32 Mbytes in size. At this point, the client should allocate
enough buffer space (in memory, or on disk) so that received packets
can be placed directly where they belong, in a way similar to the
NetBLT protocol [8].
It is assumed that the CFDP server will also be informed about the
ticket so that it can respond to requests. This can be done, for
example, by having the CFDP server and the ticket server keep the
table of ticket-to-filename mappings in shared memory, or having the
CFDP server listening on a socket for this information. To reduce
overhead, it is recommended that the CFDP server be the same process
as the front-end (ticket) server.
After the client has received the ticket for the file, it starts
listening for (broadcast) packets with the same ticket, that may
exist due to an in-progress transfer of the same file. If it cannot
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 2
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
detect any traffic, it sends to the CFDP server a request to start
transmitting the whole file. The server then sends the entire file
in small, equal-sized packets consisting of the ticket, the packet
sequence number, the actual length of data in this packet (equal to
BLKSZ, except for the last packet in the transfer), a 32-bit
checksum, and the BLKSZ bytes of data. Upon receipt of each packet,
the client checksums it, marks the corresponding block as received
and places its contents in the appropriate place in the local file.
If the client does not receive any packets within a timeout period,
it sends to the CFDP server a request indicating which packets it has
not yet received, and then goes back to the receiving mode. This
process is repeated until the client has received all blocks of the
file.
The CFDP server accepts requests for an entire file ("full" file
requests, "FULREQ"s), or requests for a set of BLKSZ blocks
("partial" file requests, "PARREQ"s). In the first case, the server
subsequently broadcasts the entire file, whereas in the second it
only broadcasts the blocks requested. If a FULREQ or a PARREQ
arrives while a transfer (of the same file) is in progress, the
requests are ignored. When the server has sent all the requested
packets, it returns to its idle state.
The CFDP server listens for requests on UDP/IP port "cfdpsrv". The
clients accept packets on UDP/IP port "cfdpcln" (both to be defined
by the site administrator), and this is the destination of the
server's broadcasts. Those two port numbers are sent to the client
with the initial handshake packet, along with the ticket. If the
minimal ticket server is implemented as described later in this
document, it is recommended (for interoperability reasons) that it
listens for requests on UDP/IP port 120 ("cfdptkt").
Let us now examine the protocol in more detail.
Protocol Specification
Initial Handshake (not strictly part of the protocol):
The client must acquire a ticket for the file it wishes to transfer,
and the CFDP server should be informed of the ticket/filename
mapping. Again, this can be done inside a BOOTP server, a modified
TFTP server, etc., or it can be part of the CFDP server itself. We
present here a suggested protocol for this phase.
The client sends a "Request Ticket" (REQTKT) request to the CFDP
Ticket server, using UDP port "cfdptkt". If the address of the
server is unknown, the packet can be sent to the local broadcast
address. Figure 1 shows the format of this packet.
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 3
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 'R' | 'Q' | 'T' | 'K' |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
/ /
\ Filename, null-terminated, up to 512 octets \
/ /
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Fig. 1: "ReQuest TicKet" packet.
The filename is limited to 512 octets. This should not cause a
problem in most, if not all, cases.
The ticket server replies with a "This is Your Ticket" (TIYT) packet
containing the ticket. Figure 2 shows the format of this packet.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 'T' | 'I' | 'Y' | 'T' |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| "ticket" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| BLKSZ (by default 512) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| FILSZ |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| IP address of CFDP server (network order) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| client UDP port# (cfdpcln) | server UDP port# (cfdpsrv) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Fig. 2: "This Is Your Ticket" packet.
The reply is sent to the UDP port that the RQTK request came from.
The IP address of the CFDP server is provided because the original
handshake server is not necessarily on the same machine as the ticket
server, let alone the same process. Similarly, the cfdpcln and
cfdpsrv port numbers (in network order) are communicated to the
client. If the client does not use this ticket server, but rather
uses BOOTP or something else, that other server should be responsible
for providing the values of cfdpcln and cfdpsrv. The ticket server
also communicates this ticket/filename/filesize to the real CFDP
server. It is recommended that the ticket requests be handled by the
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 4
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
regular CFDP server, in which case informing the CFDP server of the
ticket/filename binding is trivial (as it is internal to the
process).
Once the client has received the ticket for the filename it has
requested, the file distribution can proceed.
Client Protocol:
Once the ticket has been established, the client starts listening for
broadcast packets on the cfdpcln/udp port that have the same "ticket"
as the one it is interested in. In the state diagram below, the
client is in the CLSTART state. If the client can detect no packets
with that ticket within a specified timeout period, "TOUT-1", it
assumes that no transfer is in progress. It then sends a FULREQ
packet (see discussion above) to the CFDP server, asking it to start
transmitting the file, and goes back to the CLSTART state (so that it
can time out again if the FULREQ packet is lost). Figure 3 shows the
format of the FULREQ packet.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| "ticket" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 'F' | 0 | length == 0 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Fig. 3: FULREQ (FULl file REQuest) packet.
When the first packet arrives, the client moves to the RXING state
and starts processing packets. Figure 4 shows the format of a data
packet.
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 5
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| "ticket" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| block number | data length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
/ /
\ up to BLKSZ octets of data \
/ /
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Fig. 4: Data Packet
The format is self-explanatory. "Block number" the offset (in
multiples of BLKSZ) from the beginning of the file, data length is
always BLKSZ except for the very last packet, where it can be less
than that, and the rest is data.
As each packet arrives, the client verifies the checksum and places
the data in the appropriate position in the file. While the file is
incomplete and packets keep arriving, the client stays in the RXING
state, processing them. If the client does not receive any packets
within a specified period of time, "TOUT-2", it times out and moves
to the INCMPLT state. There, it determines which packets have not
yet been received and transmits a PARREQ request to the server. This
request consists of as many block numbers as will fit in the data
area of a data packet. If one such request is not enough to request
all missing packets, more will be requested when the server has
finished sending this batch and the client times out. Also, if the
client has sent a PARREQ and has not received any data packets within
a timeout period, "TOUT-3", it retransmits the same PARREQ. Figure 5
shows the format of the PARtial REQuest packet.
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 6
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| "ticket" |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| checksum |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 'P' | 0 | data length (2*N) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Block #0 | Block #1 |
| Block #2 | Block #3 |
/ /
\ data (block numbers requested) \
/ /
| Block #N-2 | Block #N-1 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Fig. 5: PARREQ (PARtial file REQuest) packet.
When all packets have been received the client enters the CLEND state
and stops listening.
Figure 6 summarizes the client's operations in a state diagram.
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 7
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
+-----------+
| CLSTART |
| | <---.
| send | | timeout TOUT-1
| FULREQ | ----'
| |
+-----------+
|
received packet | received packet
.-----------------------. |
| V V
+---------+ +---------+
| INCMPLT | | RXING |
| | timeout | | <---.
| send |<------------| process | | received packet
| PARREQ | TOUT-2 | packet | ----'
| | | |
+---------+ +---------+
^ | |
| | |finished
`---' |
timeout V
TOUT-3 +---------+
| CLEND |
+---------+
Fig. 6: Client State Transition Diagram
Server Protocol:
As described above, the CFDP server accepts two kinds of requests: a
request for a full file transfer, "FULREQ", and a request for a
partial (some blocks only) file transfer, "PARREQ". For the first,
it is instructed to start sending out the contents of a file. For
the second, it will only send out the requested blocks. The server
should know at all times which files correspond to which "tickets",
and handle them appropriately. Note that this may run into
implementation limits on some Unix systems (e.g., on older systems, a
process could only have 20 files open at any one time), but that
should not normally pose a problem.
The server is initially in the SIDLE state, idling (see diagram
below). When it receives a FULREQ packet, it goes to the FULSND
state, whence it broadcasts the entire contents of the file whose
ticket was specified in the FULREQ packet. When it is done, it goes
back to the SIDLE state. When it receives a PARREQ packet, it goes to
the PARSND state and broadcasts the blocks specified in the PARREQ
packet. When it has finished processing the block request, it goes
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 8
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
once again back to the SIDLE state.
receive +-------+ receive
.---------------| SIDLE |---------------.
| FULREQ +-------+ PARREQ |
| ^ ^ |
| | | |
V | | V
+--------+ | | +--------+
| FULSND | | | | PARSND |
| | done | | done | |
| send |------------' `------------| send |
| entire | | req'ed |
| file | | blocks |
+--------+ +--------+
Fig. 7: Server State Transition Diagram
Packet Formats
The structure of the packets has been already described. In all
packet formats, numbers are assumed to be in network order ("big-
endian"), including the ticket and the checksum.
The checksum is the two's complement of the unsigned 32-bit sum with
no end-around-carry (to facilitate implementation) of the rest of the
packet. Thus, to compute the checksum, the sender sets that field to
zero and adds the contents of the packet including the header. The
it takes the two's complement of that sum and uses it as the
checksum. Similarly, the receiver just adds the entire contents of
the packet, ignoring overflows, and the result should be zero.
Tuneable Parameters: Packet Size, Delays and Timeouts
It is recommended that the packet size be less than the minimum MTU
on the connected network where the file transfers are taking place.
We want this so that there be no fragmentation; one UDP packet should
correspond to one hardware packet. It is further recommended that
the packet size be a power of two, so that offsets into the file can
be computed from the block number by a simple logical shift
operation. Also, it is usually the case that page-aligned transfers
are faster on machines with a paged address space. Small packet
sizes are inefficient, since the header will be a larger fraction of
the packet, and packets larger than the MTU will be fragmented. A
good selection for BLKSZ is 512 or 1024. Using that BLKSZ, one can
transfer files up to 32MB or 64MB respectively (since the limit is
the 16-bit packet sequence number). This is adequate for all but
copying complete disks, and it allows twice as many packets to be
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 9
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
requested in a PARREQ request than if the sequence number were 32
bits. If larger files must be transferred, they could be treated as
multiple logical files, each with a size of 32MB (or 64MB).
Since most UDP/IP implementations do not buffer enough UDP datagrams,
the server should not transmit packets faster than its clients can
consume them. Since this is a one-to-many transfer, it is not
desirable to use flow-control to ensure that the server does not
overrun the clients. Rather, we insert a small delay between packets
transmitted. A good estimate of the proper delay between two
successive packets is twice the amount of time it takes for the
interface to transmit a packet. On Unix implementations, the ping
program can be used to provide an estimate of this, by specifying the
same packet length on the command line as the expected CFDP packet
length (usually 524 bytes).
The timeouts for the client are harder to compute. While there is a
provision for the three timeouts (TOUT-1, TOUT-2 and TOUT-3) to be
different, there is no compelling reason not to make them the same.
Experimentally, we have determined that a timeout of 6-8 times the
transfer time for a packet works best. A timeout of less than that
runs the risk of mistaking a transient network problem for a timeout,
and more than that delays the transfer too much.
Summary
To summarize, here is the timeline of a sample file distribution
using CFDP to three clients. Here we request a file with eight
blocks. States are capitalized, requests are preceded with a '<'
sign, replies are followed by a '>' sign, block numbers are preceded
with a '#' sign, and actions are in parentheses:
SERVER CLIENT1 CLIENT-2 CLIENT-3 comments
IDLE everybody idle
CLSTART CL1 wants a file
<TKRQ requests ticket
TIYT> server replies
(timeout) listens for traffic
<FULREQ full request
#0 RXING CL1 starts receiving
(rx 0)
#1 (rx 1) CLSTART CL2 decides to join
<TKRQ
#2 (rx 2) SRV still sending
TIYT> responds to TKRQ
#3 (rx 3) (listens) CL2 listens
RXING found traffic
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 10
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
#4 (rx 4) (rx 4) CLSTART CL3 joins in
<TKRQ
#5 (missed) (rx 5) CL1 missed a packet
TIYT> (listens)
#6 (rx 6) (rx 6) RXING CL3 found traffic
#7 (rx 7) (rx 7) (rx 7) Server finished
IDLE
(wait) (wait) (wait) CL1 managed to
(timeout) (wait) (wait) timeout
<PARREQ[5] (timeout) (timeout) CL1 blockrequests...
#5 (rx 5) <PARREQ[0123] <PARREQ[0123456] ignored by SRV
CLEND CL1 has all packets
IDLE (wait) (wait) CL2+3 missed #5
(timeout) (timeout)
<PARREQ[0123] <PARREQ[0123456] CL2's req gets
#0 (rx 0) (rx 0) through, CL3 ignored
#1 (rx 1) (rx 1) moving along
#2 (rx 2) (rx 2)
#3 (rx 3) (rx 3)
IDLE CLEND (wait) CL2 finished
(timeout)
<PARREQ[456]
#4 (rx 4)
#5 (rx 5)
#5 (rx 6)
IDLE CLEND CL3 finished
References
[1] Sollins, K., "The TFTP Protocol (Revision 2)", RFC 783, MIT, June
1981.
[2] Finlayson, R., "Bootstrap Loading Using TFTP", RFC 906, Stanford,
June 1984.
[3] Croft, W., and J. Gilmore, "Bootstrap Protocol", RFC 951,
Stanford and SUN Microsystems, September 1985.
[4] Reynolds, J., "BOOTP Vendor Information Extensions", RFC 1084,
USC/Information Sciences Institute, December 1988.
[5] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", RFC 768, USC/Information
Sciences Institute, August 1980.
[6] Deering, S., "Host Extensions for IP Multicasting", RFC 1112,
Stanford University, August 1989.
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 11
RFC 1235 CFDP June 1991
[7] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol - DARPA Internet Program Protocol
Specification", RFC 791, DARPA, September 1981.
[8] Clark, D., Lambert, M., and L. Zhang, "NETBLT: A Bulk Data
Transfer Protocol", RFC 998, MIT, March 1987.
Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
Authors' Addresses
John Ioannidis
Columbia University
Department of Computer Science
450 Computer Science
New York, NY 10027
EMail: ji@cs.columbia.edu
Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr.
Columbia University
Department of Computer Science
450 Computer Science
New York, NY 10027
Phone: (212) 854-2736
EMail: maguire@cs.columbia.edu
Ioannidis & Maguire, Jr. PAGE 12
Coherent File Distribution Protocol
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 28669 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Friday, June 21st, 1991
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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