EFTP
EFTP was a very simple file transfer protocol developed as part of the PARC Universal Packet protocol suite at Xerox PARC in the late 1970s. It was part of the inspiration for the Trivial File Transfer Protocol in the TCP/IP suite.
As with its descendant, TFTP, it did not use the reliable byte stream protocol of the suite ; rather, it ran directly on top of the basic internetwork layer. Also, like TFTP, it was a simple lock-step protocol; there was only ever one packet outstanding at any time, and every packet received by either party caused one packet to be sent in reply. Unlike TFTP, it made no provisions for sending the file-name as part of transfers, so it could only be used either in places that didn't need a file name, or in conjunction with another protocol that provided the file-name.
Since EFTP was so simple, it was easy to implement in a very small amount of memory, an important consideration at that time. It was used for booting Xerox Altos over the Ethernet, and also to send files to the print spoolers of laser printers.
Various expansions of the initialism EFTP have been given, including Easy File Transfer Protocol, Ether File Transfer Protocol, and Experimental File Transfer Protocol.
