Object-oriented networking

Question

I've written a number of networking systems and have a good idea of how networking works. However I always end up having a packet receive function which is a giant switch statement. This is beginning to get to me. I'd far rather a nice elegant object-oriented way to handle receiving packets but every time I try to come up with a good solution I always end up coming up short.

For example lets say you have a network server. It is simply waiting there for responses. A packet comes in and the server needs to validate the packet and then it needs to decide how to handle it.

At the moment I have been doing this by switching on the packet id in the header and then having a huge bunch of function calls that handle each packet type. With complicated networking systems this results in a monolithic switch statement and I really don't like handling it this way. One way I've considered is to use a map of handler classes. I can then pass the packet to the relevant class and handle the incoming data. The problem I have with this is that I need some way to "register" each packet handler with the map. This means, generally, I need to create a static copy of the class and then in the constructor register it with the central packet handler. While this works it really seems like an inelegant and fiddly way of handling it.

Edit: Equally it would be ideal to have a nice system that works both ways. ie a class structure that easily handles sending the same packet types as receiving them (through different functions obviously).

Can anyone point me towards a better way to handle incoming packets? Links and useful information are much appreciated!

Apologies if I haven't described my problem well as my inability to describe it well is also the reason I've never managed to come up with a solution.

Answer 1

About the way to handle the packet type: for me the map is the best. However I'd use a plain array (or a vector) instead of a map. It would make access time constant if you enumerate your packet types sequentially from 0.

As to the class structure. There are libraries that already do this job: Available Game network protocol definition languages and code generation. E.g. Google's Protocol Buffer seems to be promising. It generates a storage class with getters, setters, serialization and deserialization routines for every message in the protocol description. The protocol description language looks more or less rich.

Answer 2

A map of handler instances is pretty much the best way to handle it. Nothing inelegant about it.

Answer 3

In my experience, table driven parsing is the most efficient method.

Although std::map is nice, I end up using static tables. The std::map cannot be statically initialized as a constant table. It must be loaded during run-time. Tables (arrays of structures) can be declared as data and initialized at compile time. I have not encountered tables big enough where a linear search was a bottleneck. Usually the table size is small enough that the overhead in a binary search is slower than a linear search.

For high performance, I'll use the message data as an index into the table.

Answer 4

When you are doing OOP, you try to represent every thing as an object, right? So your protocol messages become objects too; you'll probably have a base class YourProtocolMessageBase which will encapsulate any message's behavior and from which you will inherit your polymorphically specialized messages. Then you just need a way to turn every message (i.e. every YourProtocolMessageBase instance) into a string of bytes, and a way to do reverse. Such methods are called serialization techniques; some metaprogramming-based implementations exist.

Quick example in Python:

from socket import *
sock = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_STREAM)
sock.bind(("localhost", 1234))
rsock, addr = sock.accept()

Server blocks, fire up another instance for a client:

from socket import *
clientsock = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_STREAM)
clientsock.connect(("localhost", 1234))

Now use Python's built-in serialization module, pickle; client:

import pickle
obj = {1: "test", 2: 138, 3: ("foo", "bar")}
clientsock.send(pickle.dumps(obj))

Server:

>>> import pickle
>>> r = pickle.loads(rsock.recv(1000))
>>> r
{1: 'test', 2: 138, 3: ('foo', 'bar')}

So, as you can see, I just sent over link-local a Python object. Isn't this OOP?

I think the only possible alternative to serializing is maintaining the bimap IDs ⇔ classes. This looks really inevitable.

Answer 5

You want to keep using the same packet network protocol, but translate that into an Object in programming, right ?

There are several protocols that allow you to treat data as programming objects, but it seems, you don't want to change the protocol, just the way its treated in your application.

Does the packets come with something like a "tag" or metadata or any "id" or "data type" that allows you to map to an specific object class ? If it does, you may create an array that stores the id. and the matching class, and generate an object.

Answer 6

A more OO way to handle this is to build a state machine using the state pattern.

Handling incoming raw data is parsing where state machines provide an elegant solution (you will have to choose between elegant and performance)

You have a data buffer to process, each state has a handle buffer method that parses and processes his part of the buffer (if already possible) and sets the next state based on the content.

If you want to go for performance, you still can use a state machine, but leave out the OO part.

Answer 7

I would use Flatbuffers and/or Cap’n Proto code generators.

Answer 8

I solved this problem as part of my btech in network security and network programming and I can assure it's not one giant packet switch statement. The library is called cross platform networking and I modeled it around the OSI model and how to output it as a simple object serialization. The repository is here: https://bitbucket.org/ptroen/crossplatformnetwork/src/master/

Their is a countless protocols like NACK, HTTP, TCP,UDP,RTP,Multicast and they all are invoked via C++ metatemplates. Ok that is the summarized answer now let me dive a bit deeper and explain how you solve this problem and why this library can help you out whether you design it yourself or use the library.

First, let's talk about design patterns in general. To make it nicely organized you need first some design patterns around it as a way to frame your problem. For my C++ templates I framed it initially around the OSI Model(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model#Layer_7:_Application_layer) down to the transport level(which becomes sockets at that point). To recap OSI : Application Layer: What it means to the end user. IE signals getting deserialized or serialized and passed down or up from the networking stack Presentation: Data independence from application and network stack Session: dialogues between sessions Transport: transporting the packets

But here's the kicker when you look at these closely these aren't design pattern but more like namespaces around transporting from A to B. So to a end user I designed cross platform network with the following standardized C++ metatemplate

template <class TFlyWeightServerIncoming, // a class representing the servers incoming payload. Note a flyweight is a design pattern that's a union of types ie putting things together. This is where you pack your incoming objects class TFlyWeightServerOutgoing, // a class representing the servers outgoing payload of different types class TServerSession, // a hook class that represent how to translate the payload in the form of a session layer translation. Key is to stay true to separation of concerns(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns) class TInitializationParameters> // a class representing initialization of the server(ie ports ,etc..)

two examples: https://bitbucket.org/ptroen/crossplatformnetwork/src/master/OSI/Transport/TCP/TCPTransport.h https://bitbucket.org/ptroen/crossplatformnetwork/src/master/OSI/Transport/HTTP/HTTPTransport.h

And each protocol can be invoked like this:

OSI::Transport::Interface::ITransportInitializationParameters init_parameters;

const size_t defaultTCPPort = 80;
init_parameters.ParseServerArgs(&(*argv), argc, defaultTCPPort, defaultTCPPort);
OSI::Transport::TCP::TCP_ServerTransport<SampleProtocol::IncomingPayload<OSI::Transport::Interface::ITransportInitializationParameters>, SampleProtocol::OutgoingPayload<OSI::Transport::Interface::ITransportInitializationParameters>, SampleProtocol::SampleProtocolServerSession<OSI::Transport::Interface::ITransportInitializationParameters>,  OSI::Transport::Interface::ITransportInitializationParameters> tcpTransport(init_parameters);
tcpTransport.RunServer();

citation: https://bitbucket.org/ptroen/crossplatformnetwork/src/master/OSI/Application/Stub/TCPServer/main.cc

I also have in the code base under MVC a full MVC implementation that builds on top of this but let's get back to your question. You mentioned:

"At the moment I have been doing this by switching on the packet id in the header and then having a huge bunch of function calls that handle each packet type."

" With complicated networking systems this results in a monolithic switch statement and I really don't like handling it this way. One way I've considered is to use a map of handler classes. I can then pass the packet to the relevant class and handle the incoming data. The problem I have with this is that I need some way to "register" each packet handler with the map. This means, generally, I need to create a static copy of the class and then in the constructor register it with the central packet handler. While this works it really seems like an inelegant and fiddly way of handling it."

In cross platform network the approach to adding new types is as follows:

1. After you defined the server type you just need to make the incoming and outgoing types. The actual mechanism for handling them is embedded with in the incoming object type. The methods within it are ToString(), FromString(),size() and max_size(). These deal with the security concerns of keeping the layers below the application layer secure. But since your defining object handlers now you need to make the translation code to different object types. You'll need at minimum within this object: 1.A list of enumerated object types for the application layer. This could be as simple as numbering them. But for things like the session layer have a look at session layer concerns(for instance RTP has things like jitter and how to deal with imperfect connection. IE session concerns). Now you could also switch from enumerated to a hash/map but that's just another way of dealing of the problem how to look up the variable.
2. Defining Serialize and de serialize the object(for both incoming and outgoing types).
3. After you serialized or deserialize put the logic to dispatch it to the appropriate internal design pattern to handle the application layer. This could possibly be a builder , or command or strategy it really depends on it's use case. In cross platform some concerns is delegated by the TServerSession layer and others by the incoming and outgoing classes. It just depends on the seperation of concerns.
4. Deal with performance concerns. IE its not blocking(which becomes a bigger concern when you scale up concurrent user).
5. Deal with security concerns(pen test).

If you curious you can review my api implementation and it's a single threaded async boost reactor implementation and when you combine with something like mimalloc(to override new delete) you can get very good performance. I measured like 50k connections on a single thread easily.

But yeah it's all about framing your server in good design patterns , separating the concerns and selecting a good model to represent the server design. I believe the OSI model is appropriate for that which is why i put in cross platform network to provide superior object oriented networking.