Computer network programming
Writing computer programs with networking capability
title: "Computer network programming" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["computer-networks-engineering", "computer-programming", "inter-process-communication"] description: "Writing computer programs with networking capability" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network_programming" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Writing computer programs with networking capability ::
Computer network programming involves writing computer programs that enable processes to communicate with each other across a computer network.
Connection-oriented and connectionless communications
Very generally, most of communications can be divided into connection-oriented, and connectionless. Whether a communication is connection-oriented or connectionless, is defined by the communication protocol, and not by . Examples of the connection-oriented protocols include and , and examples of connectionless protocols include , "raw IP", and .
Clients and servers
Main article: client–server model
For connection-oriented communications, communication parties usually have different roles. One party is usually waiting for incoming connections; this party is usually referred to as "server". Another party is the one which initiates connection; this party is usually referred to as "client".
For connectionless communications, one party ("server") is usually waiting for an incoming packet, and another party ("client") is usually understood as the one which sends an unsolicited packet to "server".
Popular protocols and APIs
Network programming traditionally covers different layers of OSI/ISO model (most of application-level programming belongs to L4 and up). The table below contains some examples of popular protocols belonging to different OSI/ISO layers, and popular APIs for them.
::data[format=table]
| OSI/ISO Layer | Protocol | API |
|---|---|---|
| L3 (network) | IP | Raw socket |
| L4 (transport) | TCP, UDP, SCTP | Berkeley Sockets |
| L5 (session) | TLS | OpenSSL |
| L7 (application) | HTTP | Various |
| :: |
References
- W. Richard Stevens: UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1, Second Edition: Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI, Prentice Hall, 1998,
References
- (2017). "COMP1406".
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