Lecture 3 : Introduction to Socket Programming

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 What is a socket?
• Port vs. Socket

• An interface between application and network

• The application creates a socket
• The socket type dictates the style of communication
• reliable vs. best effort
• connection-oriented vs. connectionless

• Once configured the application can

• pass data to the socket for network transmission
• receive data from the socket (transmitted through the
network by some other host)

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
TCP/IP Stack

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 Two essential types of sockets
• TCP Socket • UDP Socket
• reliable delivery • unreliable delivery
• in-order guaranteed • no order guarantees
• connection-oriented • no notion of “connection” – app
• bidirectional indicates dest. for each packet
• can send or receive

App

App D1
3 2
1
socket Dest.
3 2 1
socket D2

D3
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Applications

• TCP (Transmission control protocol)

- Point to point chat applications, File transfer
(FTP), Email (SMTP)
- Used when there’s a requirement for guaranteed
delivery

• UDP (User datagram protocol)

– Streaming, Multicast/Broadcast
- Useful when the speed of more important than
the assurance of delivery
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 A Socket-eye view of the Internet

medellin.cs.columbia.edu
(128.59.21.14)

newworld.cs.umass.edu
(128.119.245.93)

cluster.cs.columbia.edu
(128.59.21.14, 128.59.16.7,
128.59.16.5, 128.59.16.4)

• Each host machine has an IP address

• When a packet arrives at a host

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 Ports
• Each host has 65,536 ports
Port 0
• Some ports are reserved
for specific apps Port 1
• 20,21: FTP
• 23: Telnet Port 65535
• 80: HTTP
• see RFC 1700 (about 2000 A socket provides an interface
ports are reserved) to send data to/from the
network through a port

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Addresses, Ports and Sockets

• In TCP, only one application (process) can listen to a

port
• In UDP Multiple applications (processes) may listen to
incoming messages on a single port
• Like apartments and mailboxes
• You are the application
• Your apartment building address is the address
• Your mailbox is the port
• The post-office is the network
• Each family (process) of the apartment complex (computer)
communicates with some same mailbox (port)
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
TCP Sockets

Client socket, welcoming socket (passive) and connection socket (active)

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Connection setup
• Passive participant • Active participant
• step 1: listen (for incoming
requests)
• step 2: request & establish
• step 3: accept (a request)
connection
• step 4: data transfer
• The accepted connection is
• step 4: data transfer
on a new socket
Passive Participant
• The old socket continues to
listen for other active a-sock-1 l-sock a-sock-2
participants

socket socket
Active 1 Active 2
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Dealing with blocking

• Calls to sockets can be blocking (no other client may be

able to connect to the server)
• Can be resolved using multi-threaded programming
• Start a new thread for every incoming connection

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Java Sockets Programming

• The package java.net provides support for sockets

programming (and more).

• Typically you import everything defined in this package

with:

import java.net.*;

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Classes

InetAddress

Socket

ServerSocket

DatagramSocket

DatagramPacket

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
InetAddress class
• Static methods you can use to create new InetAddress
objects.
• getByName(String host)
• getAllByName(String host)
• getLocalHost()

InetAddress x = InetAddress.getByName(
“cse.unr.edu”);
Throws UnknownHostException

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
try {

InetAddress a = InetAddress.getByName(hostname);

System.out.println(hostname + ":" +
a.getHostAddress());

} catch (UnknownHostException e) {

System.out.println("No address found for " +

hostname);

SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna

 Socket class
• Corresponds to active TCP sockets only!
• client sockets
• socket returned by accept();

• Passive sockets are supported by a different class:

• ServerSocket

• UDP sockets are supported by

• DatagramSocket

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
JAVA TCP Sockets
• java.net.Socket
• Implements client sockets (also called just “sockets”).
• An endpoint for communication between two
machines.
• Uses input/output streams to pass messages

• java.net.ServerSocket
• Implements server sockets.
• Waits for requests to come in over the network.
• Accepts the client connection requests
• Performs some operation based on each request

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 Socket Constructors
• Constructor creates a TCP connection to a named TCP server.
• There are a number of constructors:

Socket(InetAddress server, int port);

Socket(InetAddress server, int port,

InetAddress local, int localport);

Socket(String hostname, int port);

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 Socket Methods
void close();
InetAddress getInetAddress();
InetAddress getLocalAddress();
InputStream getInputStream();
OutputStream getOutputStream();

• Lots more (setting/getting socket options, partial close, etc.)

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Socket I/O
• Socket I/O is based on the Java I/O support
• in the package java.io

• InputStream and OutputStream are abstract classes

• common operations defined for all kinds of InputStreams,
OutputStreams…

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 InputStream Basics

// reads some number of bytes and

// puts in buffer array b
int read(byte[] b);

// reads up to len bytes

int read(byte[] b, int off, int len);

Both methods can throw IOException.

Both return –1 on EOF.

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
OutputStream Basics

// writes b.length bytes

void write(byte[] b);

// writes len bytes starting

// at offset off
void write(byte[] b, int off, int len);

Both methods can throw IOException.

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
ServerSocket Class
(TCP Passive Socket)
• Constructors:

ServerSocket(int port);

ServerSocket(int port, int backlog);

ServerSocket(int port, int backlog,

InetAddress bindAddr);

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 ServerSocket Methods
Socket accept();

void close();

InetAddress getInetAddress();

int getLocalPort();

throw IOException, SecurityException

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 Socket programming with TCP
keyboard monitor

Example client-server app:

• client reads line from standard

inFromUser
input
input (inFromUser stream) , stream

sends to server via socket Client

(outToServer stream) Process Input stream:
process sequence of bytes
• server reads line from socket into process
output stream:
• server converts line to sequence of bytes
uppercase, sends back to client out of process
• client reads, prints modified line

inFromServer
outToServer
output input
from socket (inFromServer stream stream

stream)
client TCP
clientSocket
socket TCP
socket

to network from network

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Client/server socket interaction: TCP
Server (running on hostid) Client
create socket,
port=x, for
incoming request:
welcomeSocket =
ServerSocket()

TCP create socket,

wait for incoming
connection request connection setup connect to hostid, port=x
connectionSocket = clientSocket =
welcomeSocket.accept() Socket()

send request using

read request from clientSocket
connectionSocket

write reply to
connectionSocket read reply from
clientSocket
close
connectionSocket close
clientSocket
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 TCPClient.java
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

class TCPClient {
public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception
{
        String sentence;
        String modifiedSentence;

BufferedReader inFromUser =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

Socket clientSocket = new Socket("hostname", 6789);

       
DataOutputStream outToServer =
         new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());

SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna

TCPClient.java

BufferedReader inFromServer =
          new BufferedReader(new
InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
       
sentence = inFromUser.readLine();
       
outToServer.writeBytes(sentence + '\n');
       
modifiedSentence = inFromServer.readLine();
       
System.out.println("FROM SERVER: " + modifiedSentence);
      
clientSocket.close();
                  
}
}
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 TCPServer.java

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
class TCPServer {
  public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception
    {
      String clientSentence;
      String capitalizedSentence;
 
ServerSocket welcomeSocket = new ServerSocket(6789);
 
while(true) {

Socket connectionSocket = welcomeSocket.accept();

          
BufferedReader inFromClient = new BufferedReader(new
InputStreamReader(connectionSocket.getInputStream()));

SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna

 TCPServer.java

           DataOutputStream  outToClient =

             new DataOutputStream(connectionSocket.getOutputStream());
          
clientSentence = inFromClient.readLine();
          
capitalizedSentence = clientSentence.toUpperCase() + '\n';

outToClient.writeBytes(capitalizedSentence);
       
}
}
}

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 UDP Sockets
• DatagramSocket class

• DatagramPacket class needed to specify the payload

• incoming or outgoing

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Socket Programming with UDP
• UDP
• Connectionless and unreliable service.
• There isn’t an initial handshaking phase.
• Doesn’t have a pipe.
• Transmitted data may be received out of order, or lost

• Socket Programming with UDP

• No need for a welcoming socket.
• No streams are attached to the sockets.
• the sending hosts creates “packets” by attaching the IP destination
address and port number to each batch of bytes.
• The receiving process must unravel to received packet to obtain the
packet’s information bytes.

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
JAVA UDP Sockets

• In Package java.net
• java.net.DatagramSocket
• A socket for sending and receiving datagram
packets.
• Constructor and Methods
• DatagramSocket(int port): Constructs a datagram socket
and binds it to the specified port on the local host
machine.
• void receive( DatagramPacket p)
• void send( DatagramPacket p)
• void close()

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 DatagramSocket Constructors
DatagramSocket();

DatagramSocket(int port);

DatagramSocket(int port, InetAddress a);

All can throw SocketException or SecurityException

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Datagram Methods

void connect(InetAddress, int port);

void close();

void receive(DatagramPacket p);

void send(DatagramPacket p);

Lots more!

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Datagram Packet

• Contain the payload

• a byte array

• Can also be used to specify the destination address

• when not using connected mode UDP

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
DatagramPacket Constructors

For receiving:

DatagramPacket( byte[] buf, int len);

For sending:

DatagramPacket( byte[] buf, int len

InetAddress a, int port);

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
DatagramPacket methods

byte[] getData();
void setData(byte[] buf);

void setAddress(InetAddress a);

void setPort(int port);

InetAddress getAddress();
int getPort();

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Example: Java client (UDP)
keyboard monitor

inFromUser
input
stream

Client
Process
Input: receives
process
packet (TCP
received “byte
Output: sends
stream”)
packet (TCP sent

receivePacket
sendPacket
“byte stream”) UDP UDP
packet packet

client UDP
clientSocket
socket UDP
socket

to network from network

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Client/server socket interaction: UDP
Server (running on hostid) Client

create socket, create socket,

port=x, for clientSocket =
incoming request: DatagramSocket()
serverSocket =
DatagramSocket()
Create, address (hostid, port=x,
send datagram request
using clientSocket
read request from
serverSocket

write reply to
serverSocket
specifying client read reply from
host address, clientSocket
port umber close
clientSocket

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
UDPClient.java
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
 
class UDPClient {
    public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception
    {
 
      BufferedReader inFromUser =
        new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
 
      DatagramSocket clientSocket = new DatagramSocket();
 
      InetAddress IPAddress =
InetAddress.getByName("hostname");
 
      byte[] sendData = new byte[1024];
      byte[] receiveData = new byte[1024];
 
      String sentence = inFromUser.readLine();
 
      sendData = sentence.getBytes();
SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
UDPClient.java
      DatagramPacket sendPacket =
         new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length,
IPAddress, 9876);
 
 clientSocket.send(sendPacket);
 
 DatagramPacket receivePacket =
         new DatagramPacket(receiveData, receiveData.length);
 
 clientSocket.receive(receivePacket);
 
 String modifiedSentence =
         new String(receivePacket.getData());
 
 System.out.println("FROM SERVER:" + modifiedSentence);
     
clientSocket.close();
 
    }
}
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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 UDPServer.java
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
 
class UDPServer {
  public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception
    {
 
      DatagramSocket serverSocket = new
DatagramSocket(9876);
 
      byte[] receiveData = new byte[1024];
      byte[] sendData  = new byte[1024];
 
      while(true)
        {
 
          DatagramPacket receivePacket =
             new DatagramPacket(receiveData, receiveData.length);
 
          serverSocket.receive(receivePacket);
 
          String sentence = new String(receivePacket.getData());
SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
 UDPServer.java

 
   InetAddress IPAddress = receivePacket.getAddress();
 
   int port = receivePacket.getPort();
 
  String capitalizedSentence = sentence.toUpperCase();
        sendData = capitalizedSentence.getBytes();
 
   DatagramPacket sendPacket =
       new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length, IPAddress, port);
 
    serverSocket.send(sendPacket);

      }
}
}

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna
Summary
• Socket programming is the most fundamental form
of Client-Server distributed computing available for
app. developers
• Can be used to develop client-server distributed
applications (e.g. Messaging applications)
• However, most real-world distributed systems use
more high level distributed computing technologies
(E.g. Web services, EJBs)
• Yet the underlying communication mechanism of
these high level Dist. Computing frameworks is
socket communication

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SE3020 | Distributed Systems | Socket Programming | Dharshana Kasthurirathna