A File Transfer Program for a Personal Computer

Abstract

This thesis explores engineering decisions involved in implementing a network file transfer program on a personal computer in response to criteria of low cost and reasonable efficiency. The issues include choice of hardware, design of the network, choice of implementation language, choice of communication protocols, and choice of software structure. A machine level protocol is designed. A project incorporating these and other ideas is undertaken and the ideas thus evaluated. Insight is gleaned into the performance expected under varying operating system and interrupt enviroments. A notion of an "ideal" operating system interface for applications similiar to file transfer (which can exploit concurrency) is developed. Finally, possible improvements on the actual project are suggested based in part on the efficiency data obtained.