The IPC library
The inter-process communication library IPC
provides a framework on which communication services can be easily built
on top of TCP/IP.
The IPC library implements an abstraction
which is placed logically between the transport layer and the
application layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack.
The library does not define a new protocol or addressing scheme.
Its only purpose is to reduce the complexity of network programming
and to assist application programmers with various levels of expertise
in programming correct and efficient network applications.
It is a well-known problem that the expenditure of implementing
the communication part exceeds the implementation of the real
application by far.
The reduction of this often extrem disparity is a primary goal
of the IPC library.
Further properties and advantages of the IPC library are:
- A service abstraction to reduce
complexity and to hide details of network programming.
- Object-oriented specification of services and communication behaviour.
- Correct, efficient, and safe handling of the underlying communication
mechanisms and observance of recommended conventions.
- Control is left completely to the application.
- Compensation of incompatibilities between different operating systems.
- Transparent support for Transaction TCP,
regardless whether T/TCP is supported by the
underlying operating system.
The IPC library functions provide a simple and convenient
interface, hiding the details of network programming, and offer
typical mechanisms and facilities to implement client/server applications
in particular.
Copyright © 1999
Mathias Etter,
University of Ulm, Germany;
last change:
Aug 05, 1999