Socket programming Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Socket programming - Research Paper Example However, sockets can also be used to facilitate communication on one computer being either as synchronous (blocking) or an asynchronous (non-blocking) socket (Luo etal., 2009). The difference between the two is that the blocking socket ensures socket operation to be completed before the program resumes the next execution. On the other hand, non-blocking socket usually allow the application to be responsive to other events The development of socket programming has achieved notable success over the years. It all started with the development of a free version of UNIX operating system in the year 1978, the BSD UNIX by Bill Joy. The second free version of BSD was released some months later which become the internet backbone due to its open source concept. On this front, it was notable in facilitating the development of TCP/IP with UNIX as the research platform (Parziale etal., 2009). This breakthrough into spearheading internet research using UNIX operating system made Bill Joy to be regarded as the â€Å"Edison of the Internet†. The socket interface development was initially conducted on BSD UNIX after which it was later incorporated into other operating system to simplify porting applications (Mansfield & Antonakos, 2010). Stream socket (SOCK_STREAM) – mainly involved in connection-oriented data transmission where the data is usually considered as a stream of bytes. Uses the bind (), listen (), accept (), and connect function to establish connectivity and develops flow control to ensure there is no data overruns. To effect communication successfully, a stream socket requires that the two parties involved in the communication process to establish the connection first before initiating the dialog process. The client program requests for connection after which the server program determines the suitable socket connection. The data being transmitted is bound to arrive following its sending order without any duplication or errors.