TCP Socket Programming

What is a socket?
 An abstract interface provided to the
application programmer
 File descriptor, allows apps to read/write to
the network
 Allows to processes on remotely
connected computers to talk to each other
Two types of sockets
 SOCK_STREAM  SOCK_DGRAM
 TCP
 UDP
 connection oriented,
bidirectional  no connection
 reliable, in-order
 unreliable delivery, no
delivery guarantee on the
order
 can send/receive
Socket-programming using TCP
Socket: a door between application process and end-end-
transport protocol (UDP or TCP)
TCP service: reliable transfer of bytes from one process
to another

controlled by
controlled by process application
application process
developer
developer socket socket
controlled by TCP with TCP with controlled by
buffers, operating
operating buffers, internet system
system variables variables

host or host or
server server

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 4

Socket programming with TCP
Client must contact server
 server process must first be
running
 server must have created
socket (door) that welcomes
client’s contact
Client contacts server by:
 creating client-local TCP
socket
 specifying IP address, port
number of server process
 When client creates socket:
client TCP establishes
connection to server TCP
 When contacted by client,
server TCP creates new
socket for server process to
communicate with client
 allows server to talk with
multiple clients
 source port numbers
used to distinguish
clients
application viewpoint
TCP provides reliable, in-order
transfer of bytes (“pipe”)
between client and server
CPSC 441 - Application Layer 5
Ports
 Used to address processes on a host
 0-1024 is usually reserved for known service

FTP Web
Server Server
21 80
Transport
Layer
Network
Layer
DLL/Physical
Socket Programming in C

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 7

 Socket Programming - Flow
socket() socket()

bind()
connect()

listen()
Client Server
send()
accept()
wait for
recv() connection
.. recv() request from next

.
client

send()

close() close()
socket()
 int s_listen = socket(family, type, protocol);
 family: AF_INET specifies Ipv4
 type: SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM
 protocol: 0 (pseudo, IP ). See /etc/protocols
bind()
 bind(s_listen, localAdd, addLength)
 Server specifies which port and address it will be
listening to
 s_listen: our listening socket descriptor
 localAdd: socket address structure
 addLength: length of localAdd
Address Structure
struct sockaddr_in {
u_char sin_len; // length of address
u_char sin_family; // family of address
u_short sin_port; // protocol port num
struct in_addr sin_addr; // IP Addr
char sin_zero[8]; // set to zero, used for
padding
};
Address Structure
 Declare address structure
 struct sockaddr_in sockAdd;
 Set family
 sockAdd.sin_family = AF_INET;
 Set IP address (2 ways)
//specify address to listen to
 inet_pton(AF_INET, “127.0.0.1”, &sockAdd.sin_addr.s_addr)
//listen to any local address
 sockAdd.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY)

 Set port
 sockAdd.sin_port = htons(9999);
listen()
 int status = listen(s_listen, queuelength);
 status: -1 if error, 0 otherwise
 s_listen: socket descriptor
 queuelength: Number of clients that can “wait” for a connection
 listen is non-blocking: returns immediately
accept()
 int s_new = accept(s_listen, &clientAddress,
&addLength);
 s_new: new socket for communication with client
 s_listen: the listening socket
 clientAddress: struct sockaddr, address of client
 addLength: size of client address structure
 accept is blocking: waits for connection before returning
Talking
 int send(int s_new, const void *buf, int len, int
flags);
• s_new – socket descriptor
• buf – pointer to buffer
• len – size of buffer
• flags – can be safely set to 0
 int recv(int s_new, void *buf, int len, unsigned
int flags);
• similar to send
• buf holds the data to be transferred
System calls - fork()
 fork() is a C system call used to spawn child
processes
 Execution for both child and parent process
continues at the next instruction
 fork() returns
• 0 if this is the child process
• PID (>0) of the child process if this is the parent
• <0 if fork() fails
 Used to keep listening on socket and talking
on another socket
Socket Programming in Java

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 17

 Stream jargon
keyboard monitor

 A stream is a sequence of
characters that flow into
or out of a process.

inFromUser
input
stream
 An input stream is Client
Process
attached to some input process
source for the process,
e.g., keyboard or socket.
 An output stream is
attached to an output

inFromServer
outToServer
output input
source, e.g., monitor or stream stream

socket.
client
clientSocket
TCP
socket TCP
socket

to network from network

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 18

 Example: Java client (TCP)
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
class TCPClient {

public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception

{
String sentence;
String modifiedSentence;
Create
input stream BufferedReader inFromUser =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
Create
client socket, Socket clientSocket = new Socket("hostname", 6789);
connect to server
Create DataOutputStream outToServer =
output stream new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
attached to socket
CPSC 441 - Application Layer 19
 Example: Java client (TCP), cont.

Create BufferedReader inFromServer =

input stream new BufferedReader(new
attached to socket InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));

sentence = inFromUser.readLine();
Send line
to server outToServer.writeBytes(sentence + '\n');

Read line modifiedSentence = inFromServer.readLine();

from server
System.out.println("FROM SERVER: " + modifiedSentence);

clientSocket.close();

}
}
CPSC 441 - Application Layer 20
 Example: Java server (TCP)
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

class TCPServer {

public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception

{
String clientSentence;
Create String capitalizedSentence;
welcoming socket
ServerSocket welcomeSocket = new ServerSocket(6789);
at port 6789
while(true) {
Wait, on welcoming
socket for contact Socket connectionSocket = welcomeSocket.accept();
by client
BufferedReader inFromClient =
Create input new BufferedReader(new
stream, attached InputStreamReader(connectionSocket.getInputStream()));
to socket

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 21

 Example: Java server (TCP), cont

Create output
stream, attached DataOutputStream outToClient =
to socket new DataOutputStream(connectionSocket.getOutputStream());
Read in line
from socket clientSentence = inFromClient.readLine();

capitalizedSentence = clientSentence.toUpperCase() + '\n';

Write out line
outToClient.writeBytes(capitalizedSentence);
to socket
}
}
} End of while loop,
loop back and wait for
another client connection

CPSC 441 - Application Layer 22

Demo

A simple client – server example:

Echo Server
References
 Socket Programming, Dan Rubinstein,
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~danr/courses/6761/Fall00/intro/6761-1b-
sockets.ppt
 15-441 Socket Programming, www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15441-
f01/www/lectures/lecture03.ppt
 Network Programming, Geoff Kuenning,
www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/classes/hmc.cs105.200701/slides/class21_net2.ppt
 Socket Programming, Abhinav Jain,
www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/jain8/cs422/pso3.ppt