Network Sockets indigoo.

com

NETWORK
SOCKETS
INTRODUCTION TO NETWORK SOCKET
PROGRAMMING AND CONCEPTS

Peter R. Egli
© Peter R. Egli 2015
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Contents
1. What is a socket?
2. Socket = Interface to transport API
3. Routing in Network Layers
4. TCP socket „spawning“
5. Socket interface functions
6. Socket calls versus TCP segments
7. Socket calls versus UDP datagrams
8. Socket handle
9. Parameter marshalling / RPC transparency
10. Low level socket programming
11. UDP multicast sockets
12. TCP server socket: C/C++ versus Java example
13. Client socket: C/C++ versus Java example
14. IPv6 sockets

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1. What is a socket?
A socket is an interface for an application to connect to a host‘s network stack (part of the OS).

After connecting, an application is able to bidirectionally exchange data with other processes
on the same or another host.

Application Application Application

Socket interface

Network Network
stack (OS) stack (OS)

IP network

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2. Socket = Interface to transport API (host‘s transport protocols)
A socket has a binding to an NSAP (with an IP address) and a TSAP (with a
TCP/UDP/SCTP port number). The NSAP may have a specific IP address or may represent all IP
addresses of the host (unspecified IP address = wildcard address = 0.0.0.0 = inaddr_any).

App
Socket Interface
Socket
Socket
TSAP (Port #)
OSI Layer 4 (transport) TCP
NSAP (IP Address)
OSI Layer 3 (network) IP

OSI Layer 2 (data link)

Binding to port and
OSI Layer 1 (physical) specific IP address

Network Ports Binding to port and

(e.g. Ethernet) to inaddr_any

IP layer is router
TSAP: Transport Service Access Point (between interfaces
NSAP: Network Service Access Point and transport layer)
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3. Routing in Network Layers (1/4)
The routing of packets from and to a socket depends on the bind IP address.

App

Socket 1. 1. 2.
7 80 4567
TCP
IP1 IP2 IP3 IP4
IP

DL DL

Source port Dest. port PL PL

and IP addr. and IP addr. Network Ports
(e.g. Ethernet)
1. 9999 IPn 7 IP1

1. 9999 IPn 80 IP2

2. 9999 IPn 4567 IP2 2. 9999 IPn 4567 IP3

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3. Routing in Network Layers (2/4)
1. Specific IP address binding:
UDP socket:
If a UDP socket is bound to a specific IP address, only IP packets with this destination IP
address are routed to and received by this socket.
TCP socket:
In case of a listening TCP socket, only connection requests (inbound connection) addressed to
the bind IP are accepted by the socket.

2. inaddr_any binding:
If a socket is NOT bound to a specific IP address (INADDR_ANY = 0.0.0.0, wildcard IP address),
the socket is bound to all existing interfaces.
UDP socket:
A UDP socket receives any packet that contains the bind port number as target port.
TCP socket:
A listening TCP-socket bound to 0.0.0.0 is able to accept connections on all interfaces provided
that the destination port of the incoming connection request equals the bind port number.
Once the incoming connection is accepted, the created TCP-socket is bound to the destination
IP address of the incoming connection request.

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3. Routing in Network Layers (3/4)
Localhost binding and routing of outbound packets:

App App

Socket
3.
7 4567 23
TCP
IP1 IP2 IP3 IP4 127.0.0.1
IP

DL DL

Dest. port Source port PL PL

and IP addr. and IP addr. Network Ports
(e.g. Ethernet)
Outbound packet 9999 IPn 7 IP1

Outbound packet 9999 IPn 4567 IP2

Outbound packet 9999 IPn 4567 IP3

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3. Routing in Network Layers (4/4)
3. localhost binding:
If a socket is bound to “localhost”=127.0.0.1, then this socket receives only from applications
but not from the network.
Besides the local loopback interface (127.0.0.1 for IPv4, ::1 for IPv6), applications on the same
machine can also use an interface IP address for communication.

4. Outbound IP address:
The source address of outbound packets is either the bound IP address or the address of
the interface over which the packet is sent (if the socket is bound to INADDR_ANY).
N.B.: An outbound packet may also be sent over an interface other than the socket is bound to,
i.e. the routing is based on the IP layer’s routing table.

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4. TCP socket „spawning“
In TCP there exist 2 different socket types: server socket and client socket.
The server socket is used to accept incoming connections. When TCP receives
an incoming connection request on a server socket (SYN) it spawns a new (client) socket
on which the server process can send and receive data (after passing the new socket to a
newly „forked“ server process).
(5) „Forking“ of
Client Server new process Server
AP AP AP
(4) Spawning of
(2) connect(…) (1) accept(…) new TCP client socket

Socket = API Socket = API

(3) TCP 3-way handshake
TCP TCP

Full-duplex TCP connection between 2 TCP client sockets

TCP client socket (for sending and receiving data).

TCP server socket (for accepting new connections).
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5. Socket interface functions (1/2)
 TCP Socket Interface Functions:
Depending on the platform (Java, C, Python ...) client and server sockets may be
implemented differently. In C (BSD sockets, Winsock) there is only 1 socket type
while in Java client and server sockets are represented by different classes.

Client: Server:

socket() Create client socket serversocket() Create server socket

bind() Bind server socket to socket
address (IP+port)
listen() Create queues for requests
accept() Block on incoming requests
connect() Create a connection
send() Send data
receive() Blocking receive data
close() Close client socket close() Close server socket

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5. Socket interface functions (2/2)
 UDP Socket Interface Functions:
Client and server have the same socket functions.
There are no functions for connection setup / shutdown since UDP is connectionless.
With one UDP socket it is possible to send to different destination hosts (sendTo() function).

Client & Server:

socket() create client / server socket

bind() bind client / server to socket address (IP+port)
send() send data (client and server)
receive() receive data (client and server)
close() close client / server socket

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socket() Function call
6. Socket calls versus TCP segments (1/3) and function
 Connection establishment: return

Client AP Client Socket TCP TCP Server Socket Server AP

socket()

bind()

listen()

accept()
socket()
Server is blocked
connect() SYN on incoming
requests (listening).
Client SYN ACK
blocked
ACK unblock
return new Server directly services
socket handle new socket (single thread)
or starts a new thread
Rx Buffer
receive() (multithreaded).

Server is blocked
on reading.

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socket() Function call
6. Socket calls versus TCP segments (2/3) and function
 Socket send / receive (symmetric for client and server): return

Client AP Client Socket TCP TCP Server Socket Server AP

Rx Buffer
receive()

Tx Buffer
send() Rx Buffer
Data Server is blocked
Segment on reading.
ACK

Rx Buffer
unblock
receive

Server handles
the request.

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socket() Function call
6. Socket calls versus TCP segments (3/3) and function
 Socket close: return

Client AP Client Socket TCP TCP Server Socket Server AP

receive()

Server is blocked
on reading.
close() FIN EOF

ACK Server closes its socket.

FIN close()

ACK

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socket() Function call
7. Socket calls versus UDP datagrams and function
return

Client AP Client Socket UDP UDP Server Socket Server AP

socket()

socket() bind()

bind()

receive()
Rx Buffer
send() Datagram
Server is blocked
receive() Rx Buffer on reading.

Rx Buffer Server handles

Datagram send() the request.

Rx Buffer
unblock
read

close()
close()

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8. Socket handle
In Unix a socket is like a file descriptor.
 Same handling as file (open, close, EOF).
 Input stream / output stream to read / write to / from socket (like file).

File: Socket:

fhdl = fopen(filename,“rw“); Socket sock = new Socket(destHostIP,destHostPort);

while not (EOF) { while not (rx = EOF) {
s = gets(fhdl); Socket rx = sock.read();
} TCP }
puts(fhdl,”hello”); sock.write(“I’m done”);
fclose(fhdl); sock.close

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9. Parameter marshalling / RPC transparency (1/4)
Problem:
Different implementations (C/Java, processor architecture, compiler) have different
representations of data. A local data structure sent by application on host 1 may look
differently to application on host 2.

Data structure may

Local data look differently
structure App App
when received by
peer application.
Socket Socket

TCP TCP

IP IP

RPC:
Message carrying data structure Remote Procedure Call
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9. Parameter marshalling / RPC transparency (2/4) LSByte Least Significant Byte
MSByte Most Significant Byte
 E.g. Endianness:
Endianness is the ordering of bytes of a multibyte data type (integer, long integer etc.).
Network order is the way bytes (and bits) go out to the network. Network order is big endian
(MSByte first).
//the following integer is represented differently on different
//processor architectures / operating systems
int i = 14;
Memory address n n+1 n+2 n+3
int value ‚14‘ in C/C++
0 (MSByte) 0 0 14 (LSByte) on 32Bit big endian machine

n n+1 n+2 n+3

int value ‚14‘ in C/C++
14 (LSByte) 0 0 0 (MSByte) on 32bit little endian machine

n n+1 n+2 n+3 int value ‚14‘ in Java

0 (MSByte) 0 0 14 (LSByte) on 32Bit/64Bit big/little endian
machine
n n+1 n+2 n+3
0 (MSByte) 0 0 0
n+4 n+5 n+6 n+7 int value ‚14‘ in C/C++
on 64bit big endian machine
0 0 0 14 (LSByte)
n n+1 n+2 n+3
int value ‚14‘ in C/C++
14 on 8Bit big/little endian machine
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9. Parameter marshalling / RPC transparency (3/4)
 E.g. complex data structures with references:
Complex data structures contain references to to other data structures or objects.
Such references make only sense on the local machine but not on another host.

Local object with Reference broken (points

reference to other to non-existent object).
local object.

App App

Socket Socket

TCP TCP

IP IP

Message carrying object with

detached reference
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9. Parameter marshalling / RPC transparency (4/4)
 Solution:
When sending parameters over the network it is mandatory to bring them into a
standard ‚canonical‘ format. This is called parameter marshalling (or serialization).

Stubs on the client and server marshal parameters into a standard format and vice versa.

App App
Client / server stubs
client stub are linked between app server stub
and socket and perform
parameter / message
marshalling.
Socket Socket

TCP TCP

IP Marshalled messages IP
between client and server

 E.g. IDL/CORBA, Interface Description Language, generates client & server stubs from abstract interface
description. The stubs are then compiled by compiler together with application code.
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10. Low level socket programming (1/2)
 Socket Options (SO):
Socket options allow modifying the behavior of sockets.
Generally such options should be used with caution as this makes applications dependent on
the underlying socket layer (violation of layering principle).

Java (1.6) socket option support:

socket.setSoLinger(boolean on, int linger) SO_LINGER: Define time that socket remains active to
send unsent data after close() has been called
(send data in transmit buffer).
socket.setSoTimeout(int timeout) SO_TIMEOUT: Specify a timeout on blocking socket
operations (don‘t block forever).
socket.setTcpNoDelay(boolean on) SO_NODELAY: Enable/disable Nagle‘s algorithm.
socket.setKeepAlive(boolean on) SO_KEEPALIVE: Enable/disable TCP keepalive timer
mechanism.
socket.setReceivedBufferSize(int size) SO_RCVBUF: Set the size of the receive buffer.
socket.setSendBufferSize(int size) SO_SNDBUF: Set the size of the send buffer.
socket.setReuseAddress(boolean on) SO_REUSEADDR: Enable reuse of port number
and IP address so that after a restart an application
can continue using open connections.

C/C++ socket option support:

In C/C++ many more socket options can be set through setsockopt() and getsockopt()
socket API calls.

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10. Low level socket programming (2/2)
 Socket raw interfaces:
A raw socket is directly attached to the network layer without a transport layer
(no TCP, UDP or SCTP layer).
This allows direct access to ICMP (e.g. for traceroute), or IP (e.g. for IPSec).
The raw interface is not available in Java due to security concerns (access to raw interface
requires root access rights since the network stack runs in the kernel space).

App
Socket
Socket
Raw sockets TSAP (Port #)
TCP / UDP / SCTP
NSAP (IP Address)
ICMP IP

Data Link

Physical Link

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11. UDP multicast sockets (1/2)
How does multicasting work? 2. MCGA 224.0.0.1
if0 host1
if0 host2
1.
if1 host3 Host1

4.
if0
MOSPF or Host2
PIM 5.
if1 3.
Stream server
(e.g. audio/video) Host3
4.

3.
1. Hosts join multicast groups by sending IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) membership
reports (on multicast address of interest, e.g. 224.0.1.1).
2. Multicast routers keep a table to know on which interface multicast packets are to be sent.
3. Multicast routers send periodic IGMP queries to the multicast hosts to check if they are still member
of the multicast group (again sent on multicast address of interest, e.g. 224.0.1.1).
4. Upon reception of a multicast packet the multicast router performs a lookup (multicast group table with
multicast group addresses MCGA) and sends the packet to all interfaces that have multicast hosts
attached. The packet is sent using the corresponding multicast link address and is thus received by all
multicast hosts.
5. The best (and only) route through the network (no loops etc.) is established with
multicast routing protocols such as MOSPF (Multicast OSPF), PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast) etc.
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11. UDP multicast sockets (2/2)
 Multicast is only supported on UDP (TCP is connection-oriented and thus not suitable
for multicast).

 Multicast addresses:
Multicast addresses are class D IP addresses in the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.
For example:
224.0.0.9 RIP Version 2
224.0.1.1 Network Time Protocol (NTP)
224.0.0.5 All MOSPF routers

 Java multicast socket class:

Class MulticastSocket

MulticastSocket(int port) Creates a multicast socket on specified port.

joinGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr) Join a multicast group.
leaveGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr) Leaves a multicast group (no IGMP report sent,
only for hosts internal bookkeeping).
send() and receive() Inherited methods from DatagramSocket class.

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12. TCP server socket: C/C++ versus Java example
#include <sys/socket.h> import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;

int main() public static void main(String[] args)

{ {
struct sockaddr_in serv, cli; ServerSocket serv;
char request[REQUEST], reply[REPLY]; Socket cli;
int listenfd, sockfd, n, clilen; PrintStream out;
if ((listenfd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) InputStream in;
err_sys("socket error");
memset($serv, sizeof(serv), 0); try {
serv.sin_family = AF_INET; serv = new ServerSocket(33333);
serv.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY); } catch(IOException e) { ... }
serv.sin_port = htons(TCP_SERV_PORT);
if (bind(listenfd, (SA) &serv, sizeof(serv)) < 0)
err_sys("bind error");
if (listen(listenfd, SOMAXCONN) < 0)
err_sys("listen error"); while(true) {
try {
for (;;) { cli = serv.accept();
clilen = sizeof(cli); } catch(IOException e) { ... }
if ((sockfd = accept(listenfd, (SA) &cli, &clilen)) < 0) try {
err_sys("accept error"); out = cli.getOutputStream();
if ((n = read_stream(sockfd, request, REQUEST)) < 0) in = cli.getInputStream();
err_sys("read error"); String request = in.readln();
// n Bytes in request[] verarbeiten, reply[] erzeugen
if (write(sockfd, reply, REPLY) != REPLY) // reply erzeugen...
err_sys("write error");
close(sockfd); out.println(reply);
} cli.close();
} } catch (IOException e) { ... }
}
try {
serv.close();
} catch (IOException e) { ... }
}
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13. TCP client socket: C/C++ versus Java example
#include <sys/socket.h> import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{ public static void main(String[] args)
struct sockaddr_in serv; {
char request[REQUEST], reply[REPLY]; Socket clnt;
int sockfd, n; PrintStream out;
InputStream in;
// Prüfen der Parameter...

memset(&serv, sizeof(serv), 0);

serv.sin_family = AF_INET; try {
serv.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(argv[1]); clnt = new Socket("localhost", 33333);
serv.sin_port = htons(TCP_SERV_PORT); } catch(IOException e) { ... }
if (connect(sockfd, (SA) &serv, sizeof(serv)) < 0
err_sys("connect error");

// request[] initialisieren...

if (write(sockfd, request, REQUEST) != REQUEST)

err_sys("write error");
if (shutdown(sockfd, 1) < 0) try {
err_sys("shutdown error"); out = clnt.getOutputStream();
if ((n = read_stream(sockfd, reply, REPLY)) < 0) in = clnt.getInputStream();
err_sys("read error"); out.print("Hallo Server!");
String reply = in.readln();
// n Bytes von reply[] verarbeiten... clnt.close();
} catch (IOException e) { ... }
exit(0); }
}

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14. IPv6 sockets (1/2):
Most host platforms (Linux, Windows, Sun) already support IPv6.

 IPv6 sockets with Java:

 Java supports IPv6 since version 1.4.
 No difference to IPv4 sockets.
 IPv6 automatically enabled when detected.
 No source code change, no bytecode change required for IPv6 as long as the
application does not use numeric IP addresses.

 Java IPv6 API:

java.net.Inet4Address IPv4 address class
java.net.Inet6Address IPv6 address class
java.net.preferIPv4Stack Property to set preference for IPv4.
java.net.preferIPv6Addresses Property to set preference for IPv6.

N.B.: The properties are only accepted as VM arguments on startup of a program.

They can not be changed at runtime.
Example: -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=false -Djava.net.preferIPv6Stack=true

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14. IPv6 sockets (2/2):
Scenarios:
Dual stack: Separate stacks:
Listening Listening Listening
socket on socket on socket on
:: port Socket 0.0.0.0 IPv4 Socket IPv6 Socket :: port
12345 port 12345 12345

TCP TCP TCP

IPv4 IPv6 IPv4 IPv6

172.20.92.89 fe80::511a:886c:a8cc:dc66 172.20.92.89 fe80::511a:886c:a8cc:dc66

Data Link Data Link

The listening socket accepts connections IP4 socket accepts connections only on
to 172.20.92.89 and 172.20.92.89.
fe80::511a:886c:a8cc:dc66 on port 12345.
IPv6 socket accepts connections only on
Windows is dual stack since Windows Vista. fe80::511a:886c:a8cc:dc66.

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