Multicast Sockets: Practical Guide for Programmers

by David Makofske, Kevin Almeroth, David B. Makofske

Overview

Multicast Sockets: Practical Guide for Programmers is a hands-on, application-centric approach to multicasting (as opposed to a network-centric one) that is filled with examples, ideas, and experimentation. Each example builds on the last to introduce multicast concepts, frameworks, and APIs in an engaging manner that does not burden the reader with lots of theory and jargon. The book is an introduction to multicasting but assumes that the reader has a background in network programming and is proficient in C or Java. After reading the book, you will have a firm grasp on how to write a multicast program.

• Author team of instructor and application programmer is reflected in this rich instructional and practical approach to the subject material
• Only book available that provides a clear, concise, application-centric approach to programming multicast applications and covers several languages—C, Java, and C# on the .NET platform
• Covers important topics like service models, testing reachability, and addressing and scoping
• Includes numerous examples and exercises for programmers and students to test what they have learned

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558608467
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	11/19/2002
Series:	Practical Guides Series
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	0.41(w) x 7.00(h) x 10.00(d)

About the Author

David Makofske has over ten years experience as a software engineer and consultant, with an emphasis on IP network and web development. He received his Masters degree in computer science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is currently a senior solutions architect at Akamai Technologies.

Dr. Kevin Almeroth is an associate professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His research interests include computer networks and protocols, multicast communication, large-scale multimedia systems, and performance evaluation. He has been working on multicast since the early 1990s when it was first deployed on the Internet. In addition to his research, Dr. Almeroth is an active participant in several Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working groups, has helped manage multicast for Networld+Interop as part of the NOC team, and is the multicast working group chair for Internet2.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 Multicast Defined
1.2 Unicast vs. Multicast vs. Broadcast
1.3 The Multicast Tradeoff: Power/Flexibility vs. Complexity
1.4 An Overview of Multicast Protocols
1.5 Organization of this Book

2 Multicasting with C Sockets
2.1 UDP Sockets
2.2 Sending Multicast Packets in C
2.3 Receiving Multicast Packets in C
2.4 A Sample Run of Sender and Receiver(s)
2.5 C and Source Specific Multicast
2.6 WinSock Modifications

3 Multicasting with Java
3.1 The Java MulticastSocket API
3.2 A Java Multicast Sender
3.3 Receiving Multicast Packets in Java
3.4 A Sample Run

4 Multicasting with .NET
4.1 The .NET Sockets Class
4.2 Sending Multicast Packets in C#
4.3 Receiving Multicast Packets in C#
4.4 A Sample Run: C# Multicast Sender and Receiver
4.5 C# and Source Specific Multicast
4.6 The C# UdpClient Class

5 Source Specific Multicast
5.1 Source Specific Multicast Defined
5.2 Advantages of SSM
5.3 Host Support for SSM
5.4 SSM Additions to the APIs

6 Multicast Addressing and Scoping
6.1 Scoping
6.2 Multicast Address Space
6.3 Selecting a Multicast Address
6.4 Java Multicast Address Scope Methods

7 Multicast Reachability and Scalability
7.1 Multicast Reachability
7.2 Multicast Ping
7.3 Multicast Scalability
7.4 MPing with Receiver-based Congestion Control


8 Application Layer Multicast and Reflectors
8.1 Introduction
8.2 A Multicast Reflector in Java

9 Summarizing Lessons Learned

A Multicast History and Protocols
B Summary of Multicast API by Language

Editorial Reviews

"This is a terrific hands-on guide to programming multicast Internet applications. Gathering together all of the needed information, techniques, and illustrative examples in one place, it is the best source for material on multicast socket programming." —James F. Kurose, Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"Makofske and Almeroth have provided just the jump-start that most programmers will need to get started with multicast. Using the examples provided, any competent coder will be able to safely send and receive multicast packets in short order. Think of this as the crystal radio kit of multicast applications—and I mean that in the best possible sense." —Lucy Lynch, Computing Center, University of Oregon

"Until now, programming multicast applications has been an arcane pursuit, accessible to a select few. This book changes all that. It is very timely, with an introduction to programming multicast in .NET, in addition to Java and C. It is also very comprehensive, with a nice discussion of the history of multicast development." —Ramesh Govindan, University of Southern California

From the Publisher