HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

NETWORKING LABORATORY

Introduction to Network
Programming using C/C++

Slides partly prepared by Olaf Bergmann (Uni Bremen TZI)

© 2006 Jörg Ott 1

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Would be giving brief introduction on...

Parsing Command line
Socket Related Address Structures
Host Name / IP Address resolution
Socket Creation
Making TCP and UDP Connection
Sending and Receiving Data
Mulitcasting
Multiplexing I/O

© 2005 Jörg Ott 2

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Parse Command Line

int getopt(cnt,argv,optstring)
int oc;
while( (oc=getopt(argc,argv,"a:bi:sl:D:t:")) != -1)
{
switch(oc) {
case 'a' : addAddress(optarg); break;
case 'b' : usage(); exit(0);
case 'i' : addInterface(optarg); break;
case 's' : summary = true; break;
case 'l' : dumplen = GetInt(optarg); break;
case 't' : controlAddress(optarg); break;
case 'D' : duration = GetInt(optarg); break;
default :
opterr(oc);
}
}

© 2005 Jörg Ott 3

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Address Structures
struct sockaddr_in {
uint8_t sin_len; /* length of structure (16) */
sa_family_t sin_family; /* AF_INET */
in_port_t sin_port; /* 16-bit TCP or UDP port number */
struct in_addr sin_addr; /* 32-bit IPv4 address */
char sin_zero[8];
};
struct in_addr {
in_addr_t s_addr; /* 32-bit IPv4 address */
};
struct sockaddr {
uint8_t sa_len;
sa_family_t sa_family; /* address family: AF_xxx value */
char sa_data[14]; /* protocol-specific address */
};

© 2005 Jörg Ott 4

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Address Structures Contd...

bind(), recvfrom() and sendto() function uses sockaddr structure
A normal practice is to fill the stuct sockaddr_in and cast the pointer to
struct sockaddr while socket operartions

struct hostent {
char *h_name;
char **h_aliases;
int h_addrtype;
int h_length;
char **h_addr_list;
char *h_addr;
};

gethostbyname() returns the resolved address in struct hostent

format. A hostname may have multiple interfaces, so hostent
structure is designed to hold the multiple addresses of the
resolved hostname

© 2005 Jörg Ott 5

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Address Conversion functions (1)

Dotted decimal notation: aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd (IPv4 only)
in_addr_t inet_addr (char *buffer)
in_addr_t inet_aton (char *buffer)
char *inet_ntoa (in_addr_t ipaddr)

aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd (IPv4), aaaa:bbbb:cccc:dddd:eeee:ffff:gggg:hhhh (IPv6)

int inet_pton(int af, const char *src, void *dst)
dst: in_addr or in6_addr

const char *inet_ntop(int af, const void *src, char *dst, size_t)
src: in_addr bzw. in6_addr
char dst[INET_ADDRSTRLEN] bzw. char dst[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN]

gethostbyname() - converts hostname (xyz.hut.fi) to struct

hostent format

© 2005 Jörg Ott 6

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Conversion Functions (2)

Network vs. Host Byte Order

All data in the network is sent as “Big Endian”
Conversion into local representation required (Intel)
(depends on the CPU architecture but should always be done
for portability)

netshort = htons (hostshort)

netlong = htonl (hostlong)
hostshort = ntohs (netshort)
hostlong = ntohl (netlong)

© 2005 Jörg Ott 7

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

BSD Socket Interface

The BSD mechanism for Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
Transparency between local and remote communications
Socket Descriptor: feels like file i/o or stdin/stdout

Supports different types of communications, u.a.

SOCK_STREAM: TCP SOCK_DGRAM: UDP
SOCK_RAW: Raw IP SOCK_PACKET: Link-Layer-Frames

© 2005 Jörg Ott 8

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Socket Creation
int socket(domain,type,proto)
int bind(sd,addr,addrlen)
int createSocket(const sockaddr_in &addr)
{ Socke t domain
AF_INET, PF_INET6
int sd=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_DGRAM,0); Socke t type
if (sd<0) return -1; SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM, …
Protocol
0 (a ny), 6 (tcp), 17 (udp)
int yes = 1;
setsockopt(sd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char*)&yes, sizeof yes);
fcntl(sd,F_SETFL,O_NONBLOCK);
if (bind(sd,reinterpret_cast<const sockaddr *>(&addr),sizeof addr)<0) {
std::cerr << strerror(errno) << std::endl;
return -1;
}
return sd;
}

© 2005 Jörg Ott 9

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Creating UDP and TCP connections

UDP:
Create a socket with SOCK_DGRAM
Bind the socket to a address (particular IP and port number)
Ex- bind (int sd, struct sockaddr *, socklen_t len);
Now the socket can be used for send and receive operations

TCP:
Create a socket with SOCK_STREAM
Bind the socket to a address (particular IP and port number
If program need to accept any connection request, then
listen on the socket
Listen() - allows to specify the number of backlogs of
connection requests that can be buffered

© 2005 Jörg Ott 10

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Connections (TCP) contd..

connect (int sd, struct sockaddr *target, socklen_t len);
Creates (synchronously) a connection
Function call only complete when the connection is established, if a timeout
occurs without response (may be several minutes), or when ICMP error
messages indicate failure (e.g., destination unreachable)

Accepting an incoming connection (cannot reject anyway )

new_sd = accept (int sd, struct sockaddr *peer, socklen_t *peerlen);
Creates a new socket descriptor for the new connection
The original one (sd) continues to be used for accepting further connections

Closing a connection
shutdown (int sd, int mode)
0: no further sending, 1: no further reception, 2: neither sending nor receiving
close(sd) to clean up – beware of data loss!

© 2005 Jörg Ott 11

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Sending Data
Connection-oriented (TCP)
write (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length);
writev (int sd, struct iovec *vector, int count);
List of buffers, each with pointer to memory and length
send (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length, int flags)
May be used for out-of-band data

Connectionless (UDP)
sendto (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length, int flags,
struct sockaddr *target, socklen_t addrlen)
sendmsg (int sd, struct msghdr *msg, int flags)
Target address
Pointer to the memory containing the data
Control information

© 2005 Jörg Ott 12

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Receiving Data
Connection-oriented (TCP)
read (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length);
readv (int sd, struct iovec *vector, int count);
List of buffers, each with pointer to memory and length
recv (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length, int flags)
May be used for out-of-band data

Connectionless (UDP)
recvfrom (int sd, char *buffer, size_t length, int flags,
struct sockaddr *target, socklen_t addrlen)
recvmsg (int sd, struct msghdr *msg, int flags)
Sender address
Pointer to the data
Control information

© 2005 Jörg Ott 13

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Further Functions
getpeername (int sd, struct sockaddr *peer, size_t *len)
Obtain the address of the communicating peer
getsockname (int sd, struct sockaddr *local, size_t *len)
Obtain the address of the local socket (e.g., if dynamically assigned)

Modify socket parameters

getsockopt (int sd, int level, int option_id, char *value, size_t length)
setsockopt (int sd, int level, int option_id, char *value, size_t length)
Examples:
Buffer size, TTL, Type-of-Service, TCP-Keepalive, SO_LINGER, ...
fcntl (int sd, int cmd [, long arg] [, ...]);
Non-blocking I/O

© 2005 Jörg Ott 14

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Multicast reception
Multicast JOIN
setsockopt (sd, IPPROTO_IP, IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP,
struct ip_mreq *mreq, sizeof (ip_mreq));
struct ip_mreq {
struct in_addr imr_multiaddr; /* IP multicast address of
group */
struct in_addr imr_interface; /* local IP address of
interface */
};

Multicast-LEAVE
setsockopt (sd, IPPROTO_IP, IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP, struct
ip_mreq *mreq, sizeof (ip_mreq));

Optional: Allow repeated use of an address (needed for multicasting)

char one = 1;
setsockopt (sd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &one, sizeof
(char))

© 2005 Jörg Ott 15

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

I/O Multiplexing (select)

int select(maxfdset,read,write,ext,timer)
Calculate file descriptor sets (FDSET)
Determine earliest timeout
Call select()
Error?
Fatal - Terminate
Repairable (e.g. interrupted system call) - repeat
Timeout?
Timer handling; use struct timeval { … } to specify (sec, usec) pair
NULL pointer == blocking (no timeout), (0, 0) == polling
Success
Determine active file descriptors and handle events

© 2005 Jörg Ott 16

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

fd_set Makros used by select

fd_set base_set working_set;

FD_ZERO (&working_set);
FD_SET (fd, &base_set);
.
.
.
if (FD_ISSET(fd, &working_set))
. . .

© 2005 Jörg Ott 17

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

Select() example
•

rc_select = select (sd + 1, &working_set, NULL, NULL, &select_timeout);

/* Check to see if the select call failed. */
if (rc_select < 0)
{
perror("select() failed");
check errorno and act accordingly
}
/* Check to see if the 'n' minute time out expired. */
if (rc_select == 0)
{
fprintf(stderr, "\n select() timed out. \n");
return -1;
}
/* Check to see if there is a incoming connection request */
if (FD_ISSET(sd, &working_set))
{
.......
.......

© 2005 Jörg Ott 18

 HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
NETWORKING LABORATORY

I/O Multiplexing (poll)

int poll(pollfd,n_fd,timeout)

struct pollfd {
int fd; // file descriptor
int events; // events to watch for
int revents; // occurred events
};
Poll events:
POLLIN input pending
POLLOUT socket writable (only needed with non-blocking i/o)
POLLHUP, POLLERR
Timeout is specified in milliseconds
-1 == no timeout, 0 == return immediately (perform real polling)
Handling otherwise identical to select()

© 2005 Jörg Ott 19