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Network Programming

    1. Socket Programming
    2. URL Processing
  • A Network is a collection of devices that share a common communication protocol and connected with some communication medium.
  • A protocol defines a set of rules to which all the communicating parties adhere to (agree).
  • The java.net package was designed with a group of classes and interfaces which not only provide low level but also hight level communication details.
  • java.net package provides support for the two common network protocols.
  • TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
  • UDP(User Datagram Protocol)
  • The term network programming refers to writing programs, then execute across multiple devices, in which the devices are all connected to each other using a network.

Differences between TCP and UDP

TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL (TCP) USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL (UDP)
1. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. Connection-orientation means that the communicating devices should establish a connection before transmitting data and should close the connection after transmitting the data. 1. UDP is the Datagram oriented protocol. This is because there is no overhead for opening a connection, maintaining a connection, and terminating a connection. UDP is efficient for broadcast and multicast type of network transmission.
2. TCP is reliable as it guarantees delivery of data to the destination router. 2. The delivery of data to the destination cannot be guaranteed in UDP.
3.TCP provides extensive error checking mechanisms. It is because it provides flow control and acknowledgment of data. 3. UDP has only the basic error checking mechanism using checksums.
4. Sequencing of data is a feature of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). this means that packets arrive in-order at the receiver. 4. There is no sequencing of data in UDP. If ordering is required, it has to be managed by the application layer.
5. TCP is comparatively slower than UDP. 5. UDP is faster, simpler and more efficient than TCP.
6.Retransmission of lost packets is possible in TCP, but not in UDP. 6.There is no retransmission of lost packets in User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
7.TCP has a (20-80) bytes variable length header. 7. UDP has a 8 bytes fixed length header.
8.TCP is heavy-weight. 8. UDP is lightweight.
9.TCP doesn’t supports Broadcasting. 9. UDP supports Broadcasting.

Some Terminologies

  1. IP Address

    - It is a logical address that can be changed. IP Address are 32-bit number (IPv4 format) often represented as a quad of four 8-bit numbers separated by periods.  
  Eg : ```192.168.0.1```

  2. Protocol

    - It is a set of rules basically that is followed for communication.  
Eg: TCP, UDP, FTP, POP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS

  3. Port Number

    - The port number is used to uniquely identify different applications. It acts as a communication end point between applications.
- The valid port number range from 1 - 65535.
The ports upto 1023 are reserved for well known services and hence are well-known ports.  
Eg: 80  for ```HTTP```, 21 for ```FTP```, 22 for ```SSH```

  4. Socket

    - A socket is a end point between two way communication.
- It defines a network connection as a Stream from which bytes can be read and similarly bytes can be sent.
- Java socket can be used to provide both connection-oriented (```TCP```) as well as connectionless (```UDP```).