Yet Another Reliable UDP (YARU)

Introduction

YARU is an application layer transport protocol built on top of UDP to add properties of ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest). It is designed to be small and easy to implement, while still providing the minimum functionality to enable reliable transmission of data.

Specification

See spec.md for the specification of the protocol.

Implementation

The implementation is done using Python 3, using only the standard library modules for ease of portability.

• See YARU.py for the implementation of a socket capable of handling this protocol.
• See examples folder for details on how to use the YARUSocket class.

Additionally, a Wireshark plugin has also been created, which enables inspecting YARU packets natively inside Wireshark GUI.

Running

You need at least Python 3.8 installed in your system to be able to run the code.

Each example is given in a Client/Server architecture, which can be selected using a command line argument. So, you will need two terminals to run the examples. Always run the server first.

Steps:

1. Copy YARU.py file into the examples folder.
2. In a terminal, just enter python3 <filename>.py server or python3 <filename>.py client to run the example.

Optional: To enable wireshark integration, copy wireshark_plugin.lua to its Lua Plugins Directory (Wireshark > Help > About Wireshark > Folders)

Testing

File Transfer

file_transfer.py contains a very naive file transfer application code that uses the YARUSocket class to communicate over UDP and to demonstrate the reliability features of the protocol.

It's execution can be cutomized via command line parameters like:

• address: What interface to bind/connect to (default: localhost)
• port: Port of the receiver (default: 1060)
• file: (required) Which file to send
• directory: Where to store the received file (default: Received)
• loglevel: To set the cutoff for the logs to be displayed (default: DEBUG)

Pass either receiver or sender as role (python file_transfer.py <role> <other arguments>).
address, port and loglevel should be specified before the role.

Automated testing

tests/transfer_test.py is a script to automatically run file_transfer.py in various network conditions, using netem.

It runs the file transfer using YARU and stores the transfer time in JSON files under the results directory.

tests/plot.py uses plot.ly to generate interactive Box Plots from the results.

Charts

Interactive chart

Interactive chart

Interactive chart

Interactive chart

Interactive chart

Author

Krut Patel