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Another TCP Echo Server using IOCP

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3.78/5 (34 votes)
9 Feb 2019CPOL1 min read 111.5K   464   43   40
An introduction to writing IOCP network servers

Introduction

This tip shows a very simple non-blocking TCP echo server using Windows Input/Output Completion Ports, capable of handling any number of clients simultaneously.

Background

IOCPs are generally considered the best (some would say the only) way of writing high-performance, highly-scalable network servers in Windows. But there are no simple examples of their use readily available on the internet.

This tip intends to fulfill this gap, by providing a very simple C-language IOCP server example. There are no classes to learn, no other Windows API to worry about, no thread stuff to complicate matters, just the two functions relating to IOCPs: CreateIoCompletionPort and GetQueuedCompletionStatus. Also, of course, the usual sockets API are used, in the Winsock asynchronous flavor: AcceptEx, listen, bind, WSARecv and WSASend.

Description

The general flow of control of the echo server is described in the steps below:

1. initialize Winsock (WSAStartup)
2. create the I/O Completion Port (CreateIoCompletionPort)
3. create the listening socket (listen)
4. associate the listening socket with the IOCP (CreateIoCompletionPort)
5. bind the listening socket (bind)
6. start listening (listen)
7. create a pointer to the AcceptEx function (!)
8. start accepting a new connection (asynchronous AcceptEx)
   // the completion status for AcceptEx will be reported through
   // the listen IOCP completion status (see step 4)
9. wait for a completion port status (GetQueuedCompletionStatus)
9.1 if the completion status is for an accept (an AcceptEx has completed)
    9.1.1 "update the context" of the new socket (whatever that is...)
    9.1.2 associate the new socket with the completion port
    9.1.3 start reading from the new socket (asynchronous WSARecv)
    9.1.4 start accepting another connection (asynchronous AcceptEx)
    9.1.5 go to step 9
9.2 if the completion status is for a read (a WSARecv has completed)
    9.2.1 start writing to the socket through which the data arrived,
          echoing back the data (asynchronous WSASend)
    9.2.2 go to step 9
9.3 if the completion status is for a write (a WSASend has completed)
    9.3.1 start reading again from the socket that was used to send the data
          (asynchronous WSARecv)
    9.3.2 go to step 9

That's it! Well, there are all those pesky error situations that have to be handled, and there's also some code to track the connections, but all in all, the above pseudo-code sums up most of the program code. One thing to note though is that all operations must be "overlapped" (a kind of asynchronous I/O operation in Windows).

Also, there's a small client program (not using IOCPs) that can be used to test the echo server.

Conclusion

IOCPs are easy to use, and the program shipped with this tip intends to show how to do it.

You can download the code from here.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
zvx
Software Developer
Brazil Brazil
I'm a long-time software developer living in Brazil.

I've been developing software for retail and banking automation in C/C++ for many years now. In the old days I even did some COBOL programming, and some assembly for the 8080.

My experience ranges from low level software such as interface code for serial devices for DOS and Windows (bar code scanners, printers, cash dispensers, etc) and goes to writing end user applications for POS terminals and bank ATMs. In between I've done a great deal of TCP/IP programming using the basic Berkeley sockets interface, which is my main interest nowadays.

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionGreat code Pin
11917640 Member 17-Feb-19 19:21
11917640 Member 17-Feb-19 19:21 
AnswerRe: Great code Pin
zvx20-Feb-19 11:45
zvx20-Feb-19 11:45 
GeneralRe: Great code Pin
11917640 Member 20-Feb-19 19:47
11917640 Member 20-Feb-19 19:47 
QuestionDoubts on Worker Thread in IOCP Pin
Vincent Tan9-Mar-16 20:41
Vincent Tan9-Mar-16 20:41 
AnswerRe: Doubts on Worker Thread in IOCP Pin
zvx10-Mar-16 14:48
zvx10-Mar-16 14:48 
QuestionDownload Link is Not Working Pin
Vincent Tan8-Mar-16 22:27
Vincent Tan8-Mar-16 22:27 
AnswerRe: Download Link is Not Working Pin
zvx9-Mar-16 13:57
zvx9-Mar-16 13:57 
GeneralRe: Download Link is Not Working Pin
Vincent Tan9-Mar-16 14:11
Vincent Tan9-Mar-16 14:11 
Questioncode missing Pin
JanAlleman16-Feb-16 16:02
JanAlleman16-Feb-16 16:02 
AnswerRe: code missing Pin
zvx9-Mar-16 13:56
zvx9-Mar-16 13:56 
Questionquestion: is it legal to do next start_reading on the same socket that we sent to start_writing before we got write_completed Pin
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 2:43
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 2:43 
AnswerRe: question: is it legal to do next start_reading on the same socket that we sent to start_writing before we got write_completed Pin
zvx25-Aug-14 3:13
zvx25-Aug-14 3:13 
GeneralRe: question: is it legal to do next start_reading on the same socket that we sent to start_writing before we got write_completed Pin
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 3:50
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 3:50 
QuestionBUG ? - you send address of variable on the stack to WSASend (and to WSARecv) Pin
Avner BenHanoch24-Aug-14 21:51
Avner BenHanoch24-Aug-14 21:51 
AnswerRe: BUG ? - you send address of variable on the stack to WSASend Pin
zvx25-Aug-14 2:32
zvx25-Aug-14 2:32 
GeneralRe: BUG ? - you send address of variable on the stack to WSASend Pin
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 2:53
Avner BenHanoch25-Aug-14 2:53 
GeneralRe: BUG ? - you send address of variable on the stack to WSASend Pin
zvx25-Aug-14 3:18
zvx25-Aug-14 3:18 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Avner BenHanoch21-Aug-14 2:41
Avner BenHanoch21-Aug-14 2:41 
elegant and straightforward
QuestionHow to download the code? Pin
fjptlqf12-Sep-13 16:13
fjptlqf12-Sep-13 16:13 
AnswerRe: How to download the code? Pin
zvx12-Sep-13 16:30
zvx12-Sep-13 16:30 
GeneralRe: How to download the code? Pin
Member 1010014827-May-14 1:34
Member 1010014827-May-14 1:34 
GeneralRe: How to download the code? Pin
zvx27-May-14 1:49
zvx27-May-14 1:49 
QuestionThank You for Putting the Code up for download Pin
Gary Olson27-Mar-13 9:40
Gary Olson27-Mar-13 9:40 
AnswerRe: Thank You for Putting the Code up for download Pin
zvx27-Mar-13 9:59
zvx27-Mar-13 9:59 
GeneralMy vote of 1 Pin
Gary Olson27-Mar-13 4:24
Gary Olson27-Mar-13 4:24 

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