[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Kermit efficiency?

c60b-1eq@e260-1g.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) (04/28/91)

In article <1991Apr27.154039.6656@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> mcc@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM (Merton Campbell Crockett) writes:
>In article <1991Apr27.053539.10761@agate.berkeley.edu> c60b-1eq@e260-1e.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr27.031643.23049@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> mcc@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM (Merton Campbell Crockett) writes:
>>>				In file transfers through a 2400 baud
>>>modem link using 512 byte packets and 3 windows, an effective baud rate of
>>>2510 to 2560 is typical transfer rate for text files.
>>The 2510-2560 bps figure for text data is due to Kermit's RLE compression,
>Sorry about that.  I should have indicated that setting the windows to 1--ie
>disabling the sliding windows option--yields an effective transfer rate in
>the 2280-2340 bps range for text data.

Yes, that would sound reasonable.  Note that even with sliding windows,
a larger packet may yield greater transfer rates since there is some
overhead involved when a new packet is sent.  Although sliding windows
minimizes this delay (since it doesn't have to wait for the ACK, which is
the most time-consuming aspect of new packets), it still exists.
However, if you're expecting any errors at all, a smaller packet size
will yield higher transfer rates.

>Probably should have also noted that MS-Kermit 3.10 now provides an automatic
>detection and notification of a 7 bit data link in the path between the local
>and remote system.  When a 7 bit data link is detected and the file type
>is set to binary, the binary data is encoded to traverse the 7 bit data link
>segment.  A useful feature when you forget the -8 switch to rlogin.

The 8th bit prefix is an old feature of the Kermit protocol.  Although
ZMODEM should theoretically be capable of handling 7-bit lines, all
implementations that I've seen don't.  Kermit is the only one which
groks the 7-bit lines.

-- 
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