Large Uploads and Downloads

A client uploads a five-gigabyte video through an API server. The transfer occupies that server for eleven minutes. At minute ten, a gateway closes the connection.

The client cannot tell how many bytes arrived, whether the server kept them, whether the upload can resume, whether retrying will duplicate storage, or whether the file was rejected after eleven minutes of transfer.

The API server was designed for requests that finish in under a second. Carrying five gigabytes through it is a different job.

This lesson presents two workable designs