Networking

HTTP

TCP

• All packets are guaranteed to be received in order using a handshake
  • Checksum fields and sequence numbers for each packet
  • The send function returns the number of bytes send
• If the checksum fails, data will need to be resent
• Web servers can keep many connections open, but you'll want connection pooling if you have too many connections with a server

UDP

• UDP has no checksum, enabling lower latency
• Packets are not guaranteed to be received in order
• This is best for live games, video chat, video streaming

Web Sockets

• Bidirectional updates with persistent state and persistent connection
  • Got for live bidirectional updates
• Web sockets either send all of the data or none
• Web sockets are non-blocking on the send call
• The data received from a web socket is always the data sent
• Web sockets use TCP as the protocol

In Comparison with HTTP APIs

• APIs are stateless, require a new connection for each request
• APIs are better suited for CRUD