ReFileAble Transfer

Description

ReFileAble Transfer is a simple file-transfer framework making use of a Go-Back-N based algorithm for ensuring correct packet transfer. Options are also provided for testing the reliability of data transfer through a malicious middleman that deliberately corrupts, reorders, and drops packets.

Getting Started:

Starting the Virtual Environment

When installing dependencies for any Python project, it is good practice to do so from within a virtual environment. To create a virtual environment for this project, run python3 -m venv .venv from a terminal window. To start the venv, on a Unix-based system, run source .venv/bin/activate from the same directory.

Installing Dependencies

This project depends on a few required dependencies for building the documentation. To install these, run the following command from within the venv: pip install -r requirements.txt

A Note on Administrator Priveleges

The scripts in this project use raw UDP sockets for network communication. As such, when attempting communication between machines (rather than running scripts locally), the scripts must be run with admin privileges in order to bypass security restrictions. To do this on a Unix-based system, preface each command with sudo.

Testing Reliable Data Transfer

To test the reliability of data transfer, three separate processes must be run. First, start the RDTRecvr by running:

python3 RDTUnit.py --mode="recv"

Then, in a separate terminal window, start the middleman with:

python3 middleman.py -c -l -r

Finally, in a third terminal, start the RDTSender with:

python3 RDTUnit.py --mode="send"

This will start the sender sending data through the middleman to the receiver, with the middleman occasionally corruptin, dropping, and reordering packets. For a description of all of the options available for each of the three participants in this test, each command can be run with -h to print a help message.

Transfering Files

Similarly to the above example, multiple processes must be run for file transfer. For a basic example, run the following two commands in separate terminal windows:

python3 RFTServer.py
python3 RFTClient.py --mode=send -f <filename>

This will transfer from the sender to the receiver. For a description of the available options for the clients and servers, run each of the above commands with -h.