Technical Background
TFTP operates in a simple lock-step: there is only ever one packet outstanding at any time, and every packet received by either party caused one packet to be sent in reply (until the termination of the transfer). The TFTP specification said that any time any packet was received, the receiver was required to send the appropriate reply packet. Thus, the receipt of a block of data triggered the sending of an 'acknowledgement', and the receipt of an acknowledgement triggered the sending of the next data block. This may sound fairly harmless, but it led to disaster.
TFTP also, like all protocols designed to operate across an unreliable network, includes timeouts. For example, when it does something to which it expects a reply from the party at the other end (such as sending it a packet), it starts a timer, and if the timer goes off and the reply has not been received, it takes some action; usually, the response is to re-send the original packet.
Read more about this topic: Sorcerer's Apprentice Syndrome
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