Status of this Memo

This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

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.

This document describes a new TFTP option. This new option will allow the multiple clients to receive the same file concurrently through the use of Multicast packets. The TFTP Option Extension mechanism is described in [2].

Often when similar computers are booting remotely they will each download the same image file. By adding multicast into the TFTP option set, two or more computers can download a file concurrently, thus increasing network efficiency.

This document assumes that the reader is familiar with the terminology and notation of both [1] and [2].

Multicast Option Specification

The TFTP Read Request packet is modified to include the multicast option as follows:

   +--------+----~~----+---+--~~--+---+-----------+---+---+     opc=1  filename  0  mode  0  multicast  0  0    +--------+----~~----+---+--~~--+---+-----------+---+---+

• opc

  • The opcode field contains a 1, for Read Requests, as defined in [1].

• filename

  • The name of the file to be read, as defined in [1]. This is a NULL-terminated field.

• mode

  • The...