🛠 Computer Networks: Reliable File Transfer Protocol

Author: Dhruv Trivedi
Course: CS 436 - Networks and Distributed Computer Systems
Instructor: Noura Limam

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🔍 Overview

This project implements a reliable file transfer protocol, facilitating the transfer of text files from one host to another over UDP. Designed to tackle network errors efficiently, the protocol offers unidirectional data flow—transferring data from the sender to the receiver while acknowledgements (ACKs) flow in the opposite direction.

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📊 Prerequisites

• Python Version: Ensure you have Python 3.6 or higher installed.
• Logs & Output: Before testing, remove the output file and all four log files:
  • ack.log
  • arrival.log
  • drop.log
  • seqnum.log

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🚀 Running the Program

1. Start the Receiver

Navigate to the source directory:

cd ./source

The receiver program accepts three command-line arguments: <receiver_port>, <drop_probability>, and <output_filename>.

Execute the command:

python3 receiver.py <receiver_port> <drop_probability> <output_filename>

Example:

python3 receiver.py 9994 0.5 output.txt

2. Run the Sender

Once the receiver is up and running, initiate the sender. The sender needs five command-line arguments: <receiver_hostname>, <receiver_port>, <sender_port>, <timeout(in milliseconds)>, and <input_filename>.

Execute the command:

python3 sender.py <receiver_hostname> <receiver_port> <sender_port> <timeout> <input_filename>

Example:

python3 sender.py ubuntu2004-010 9994 9992 50 input.txt

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🌐 Test Environments

The program has been successfully tested on the following machines:

1. 🔹 Hostname: ubuntu2004-008.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca
   CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697A v4 @ 2.60GHz
   Make: Dell Inc.

2. 🔹 Hostname: ubuntu2004-010.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca
   CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6148 CPU @ 2.40GHz
   Make: Supermicro

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