The Coherent File Distribution Protocol

CFDP is a protocol that takes advantage of the broadcast nature of CSMA networks to speed up simultaneous one-to-many file transfers (e.g., when booting diskless workstations). The CFDP server listens and services requests for entire files or portions thereof. CFDP clients first determine whether the file they are interested in is already being transferred, in which case they "eavesdrop" and load as much of it as they can, or they initiate a new transfer. The clients timeout when the server stops transmitting, and if they are still missing parts of the file they request them with a block-transfer request. CFDP is a back-end protocol a front end is needed to handle naming and security issues. A simple such front end is also presented here.