Transports

NexNet supports six transport types. All transports guarantee ordered, reliable delivery. The choice of transport affects performance, security, and deployment flexibility.

Transport Types

Unix Domain Sockets (UDS)

Unix Domain Sockets offer the highest efficiency for inter-process communication due to minimal overhead. UDS are suitable when processes communicate on the same host, providing optimal performance without network stack overhead.

// Server
var config = new UdsServerConfig { EndPoint = new UnixDomainSocketEndPoint("/tmp/nexnet.sock") };

// Client
var config = new UdsClientConfig { EndPoint = new UnixDomainSocketEndPoint("/tmp/nexnet.sock") };

TCP

TCP supports reliable network and internet communication. It is the fastest transport following UDS, offering reliable, ordered packet delivery over IP networks.

// Server
var config = new TcpServerConfig { EndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 5000) };

// Client
var config = new TcpClientConfig { EndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 5000) };

TLS over TCP

TLS over TCP enables secure, encrypted communication using SslStream on both server and client. It introduces additional overhead due to the Socket → NetworkStream → SslStream encapsulation, making it less performant compared to UDS and plain TCP.

QUIC (UDP)

QUIC is a reliable UDP-based protocol guaranteeing packet transmission, order integrity, and resilience against IP and port changes (such as transitions from Wi-Fi to cellular). Implementation requires:

The NexNet.Quic NuGet package
libmsquic library on Linux (sudo apt install libmsquic on Ubuntu)
Windows QUIC support on Windows

WebSockets (ASP.NET Core)

WebSockets enable real-time, bidirectional data exchange over persistent TCP connections. NexNet uses binary WebSocket streams, which introduce a minor overhead of 4 bytes per message header/data frame.

Requires the NexNet.Asp package and an ASP.NET Core server. See ASP.NET Integration.

HttpSockets (ASP.NET Core)

HttpSockets establish a bidirectional, long-lived data stream by upgrading a standard HTTP connection. Similar to WebSockets in connection upgrade methodology, HttpSockets eliminate WebSocket-specific message header overhead. After connection establishment, the stream is directly managed by the NexNet server, minimizing transmission overhead.

Requires the NexNet.Asp package and an ASP.NET Core server. See ASP.NET Integration.

Transport Selection Guide

Scenario	Recommended Transport	Reason
Same machine IPC	Unix Domain Sockets	Highest performance, no network overhead
Local network	TCP	Simple, reliable, fast
Internet/WAN	TLS over TCP	Secure, widely supported
Mobile/unstable networks	QUIC	Connection migration, better congestion control
Web applications	WebSockets	Browser compatibility, firewall-friendly
Reverse proxy setups	HttpSockets	Lower overhead than WebSockets

Extensibility

Additional transports can be added with relative ease as long as the new transport guarantees order and transmission.

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