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Homework answers / question archive / When a file is transferred between two computers, two acknowledgement strategies are possible
When a file is transferred between two computers, two acknowledgement strategies are possible. In the first one, the file is chopped up into packets, which are individually acknowledged by the receiver, but the file transfer as a whole is not acknowledged. In the second one, the packets are not acknowledged individually, but the entire file is acknowledged when it arrives. Discuss the pros and cons of these two approaches.
Answer: If the network tends to lose packets, it is better to acknowledge each one separately, so the lost packets can be retransmitted. On the other hand, if the network is highly reliable, sending one acknowledgement at the end of the entire transfer saves bandwidth in the normal case (but requires the entirefile to be retransmitted if even a single packet is lost).