readme v1

README.md

@@ -8,12 +8,31 @@
 
 ## High level approach
 
-TODO
+For this assignment we developed a new protocol that would be particularly efficient at
+transferring a file over an unreliable connection. The protocol devides the input file
+into fixed-length "segments", numbers them sequentially, and attempts to transfer them to
+the receiver. It repeatedly retransmits segments that it is not confident that the
+receiever has obtained. The receiever periodically sends batched-acknowledgements that
+list receieved segments. The segments are compressed using state-of-the-art compression
+algorithms to ensure expedient delivery. The rate of sending and acknowledgement is
+continuously tuned to optimize for network conditions.
 
 ## Challenges
 
-TODO
+We faced many challenges implementing this protocol, such as the following:
+
+- Learning how to use cutting-edge event-loop libraries in Rust
+- Selecting a re-transmission algorithms that would be resistant to drops and duplicates
+- Choosing constants that would tune the transmission rate to adjust automatically to
+  network latency and bandwidth
+- Ensuring that *both* connections would close once the file had been successfully
+  transferred.
 
 ## Testing
 
-TODO
+Various internal algorithms and datastructures were tested using simple unit tests.  For
+instance, we have unit tests to check that our packet encoding/decoding schemes work
+correctly.
+
+However, testing general consistency of the protocol was done by running the scripts
+provided to us, which automatically adjust network conditions and send large files.