evenbytes

evenbytes is a lightweight file transfer protocol designed for high‑throughput, low‑latency applications. Developed in 2021 by a team of researchers at the University of Neuchâtel, the protocol addresses the overhead and fragmentation problems observed in legacy binary streaming protocols such as FTP and HTTP/2 for large, sequential data streams. evenbytes operates over UDP, using a single‑direction data channel augmented with a minimal acknowledgement mechanism to ensure reliability without the extensive handshaking of TCP.

The protocol’s name derives from its core principle: data is transmitted in even, contiguous byte blocks rather than a series of variable‑length packets. Each block is prefixed with a lightweight 12‑byte header that encodes block sequence, length, and optional checksum information. The modular header allows clients and servers to negotiate optional compression or encryption extensions.

in practice, evenbytes is used primarily in high‑performance computing environments, such as climate simulation workflows and genomic sequencing pipelines, where large datasets must be streamed between compute nodes with minimal buffering. Benchmarks show up to a 30 % improvement in throughput over conventional TCP when network jitter is moderate, while still maintaining compatibility with existing IP networks without requiring firewall bypasses.

The protocol is open source and published under the Apache 2.0 license, and standard libraries are available for C++, Rust, and Python. The official specification is maintained in the evenbytes‑protocol GitHub repository, and an active mailing list supports implementation debugging and feature requests.