BSD Sockets Interface Programmer's Guide

18 Chapter 1
BSD Sockets Concepts
Introduction
binding Before a socket can be accessed across the network,
it must be bound to an address. Binding associates a
socket address with a socket and makes the socket
accessible to other sockets on the network. Once a
socket address is bound, other sockets can connect
to the socket and send data to or receive data from
it.
channel Communication path created by establishing a
connection between sockets.
communication
domain
A set of properties that describes the characteristics
of processes communicating through sockets. The
internet (AF_INET) address family domain is
supported. The UNIX Domain (AF_UNIX) address
family domain is also supported, for local
communication only.
internet
address
A four-byte address that identifies a node on the
network.
message The data sent in one UDP packet.
packet A message or data unit that is transmitted between
communicating processes.
peer The remote process with which a process
communicates.
port An address within a host that is used to
differentiate between multiple sockets with the
same internet address. You can use port address
values 1024 through 65535. (Port addresses 1
through 1023 are reserved for the super-user.)
protocols Two internet transport layer protocols can be used
with BSD Sockets. They are TCP, which implements
stream sockets, and UDP, which implements
datagram sockets.
socket Sockets are communication endpoints. A pair of
connected sockets provides an interface similar to
that of HP-UX pipes. A socket is identified by a
socket descriptor.