HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 09:58:27 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.20 (Unix) Last-Modified: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 16:44:03 GMT ETag: "361da7-1fd1-31b467d3" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 8145 Connection: close Content-Type: text/plain draft-malkin-tftpexts-blksize-opt-00.txt G. Malkin / Xylogics TFTP Blocksize Option A. Harkin / Hewlett Packard Co. Obsoletes RFC 1783 May 1996 TFTP Blocksize Option Abstract The Trivial File Transfer Protocol [1] is a simple, lock-step, file transfer protocol which allows a client to get or put a file onto a remote host. One of its primary uses is the booting of diskless nodes on a Local Area Network. TFTP is used because it is very simple to implement in a small node's limited ROM space. However, the choice of a 512-octet blocksize is not the most efficient for use on a LAN whose MTU may 1500 octets or greater. This document describes a TFTP option which allows the client and server to negotiate a blocksize more applicable to the network medium. The TFTP Option Extension mechanism is described in [2]. Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the "1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow Directories on ds.internic.net (US East Coast), nic.nordu.net (Europe), ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast), or munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim). Blocksize Option Specification The TFTP Read Request or Write Request packet is modified to include the blocksize option as follows. Note that all fields except "opc" are NULL-terminated. Malkin & Harkin Expires: 29Nov96 [Page 1] Internet Draft TFTP Blocksize Option May 1996 +-------+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+ | opc |filename| 0 | mode | 0 | blksize| 0 | #octets| 0 | +-------+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+---~~---+---+ opc The opcode field contains either a 1, for Read Requests, or 2, for Write Requests, as defined in [1]. filename The name of the file to be read or written, as defined in [1]. mode The mode of the file transfer: "netascii", "octet", or "mail", as defined in [1]. blksize The Blocksize option, "blksize" (case in-sensitive). #octets The number of octets in a block, specified in ASCII. Valid values range between "8" and "65464" octets, inclusive. The blocksize refers to the number of data octets; it does not include the four octets of TFTP header. For example: +-------+--------+---+--------+---+--------+---+--------+---+ | 1 | foobar | 0 | binary | 0 | blksize| 0 | 1428 | 0 | +-------+--------+---+--------+---+--------+---+--------+---+ is a Read Request, for the file named "foobar", in binary transfer mode, with a block size of 1428 octets (Ethernet MTU, less the TFTP, UDP and IP header lengths). If the server is willing to accept the blocksize option, it sends an Option Acknowledgment (OACK) to the client. The specified value must be less than or equal to the value specified by the client. The client must then either use the size specified in the OACK, or send an ERROR packet, with error code 8, to terminate the transfer. The rules for determining the final packet are unchanged from [1]. The reception of a data packet with a data length less than the negotiated blocksize is the final packet. If the blocksize is greater than the amount of data to be transfered, the first packet is the final packet. If the amount of data to be transfered is an integral multiple of the blocksize, an extra data packet containing no data is sent to end the transfer. Malkin & Harkin Expires: 29Nov96 [Page 2] Internet Draft TFTP Blocksize Option May 1996 Proof of Concept Performance tests were run on the prototype implementation using a variety of block sizes. The tests were run on a lightly loaded Ethernet, between two HP-UX 9000, in "octet" mode, on 2.25MB files. The average (5x) transfer times for paths with (g-time) and without (n-time) a intermediate gateway are graphed as follows: | 37 + g | 35 + | 33 + | 31 + | 29 + | 27 + | g blocksize n-time g-time 25 + --------- ------ ------ s | n 512 23.85 37.05 e 23 + g 1024 16.15 25.65 c | 1428 13.70 23.10 o 21 + 2048 10.90 16.90 n | 4096 6.85 9.65 d 19 + 8192 4.90 6.15 s | 17 + g | n 15 + | n 13 + | 11 + n | g 9 + | 7 + n | g 5 + n " 0 +------+------+--+---+------+------+--- 512 1K | 2K 4K 8K 1428 blocksize (octets) Malkin & Harkin Expires: 29Nov96 [Page 3] Internet Draft TFTP Blocksize Option May 1996 The comparisons between transfer times (without a gateway) between the standard 512-octet blocksize and the negotiated blocksizes are: 1024 2x -32% 1428 2.8x -42% 2048 4x -54% 4096 8x -71% 8192 16x -80% As was anticipated, the transfer time decreases with an increase in blocksize. The reason for the reduction in time is the reduction in the number of packets sent. For example, by increasing the blocksize from 512 octets to 1024 octets, not only are the number of data packets halved, but the number of acknowledgement packets is also halved (along with the number of times the data transmitter must wait for an ACK). A secondary effect is the efficiency gained by reducing the per-packet framing and processing overhead. Of course, if the blocksize exceeds the path MTU, IP fragmentation and reassembly will begin to add more overhead. This will be more noticable the greater the number of gateways in the path. Security Considerations Security issues are not discussed in this memo. References [1] Sollins, K., "The TFTP Protocol (Revision 2)", Request for Comments 1350 (STD 33), October 1992. [2] Malkin, G., Harkin, A., "TFTP Option Extension", Internet Draft, draft-ietf-tftpexts-options-01.txt, September 1994. Authors' Addresses Gary Scott Malkin Xylogics / Bay Networks 53 Third Avenue Burlington, MA 01803-4491 Phone: (617) 238-6237 EMail: gmalkin@xylogics.com Malkin & Harkin Expires: 29Nov96 [Page 4] Internet Draft TFTP Blocksize Option May 1996 Art Harkin Networked Computing Division Hewlett-Packard Company 19420 Homestead Road MS 43LN Cupertino, CA 95014 Phone: (408) 447-3755 EMail: ash@cup.hp.com Malkin & Harkin Expires: 29Nov96 [Page 5]