readme-tcp

tinyos-2.x.rar

 @title TCP Socket Documentation
 @author Stephen Dawson-Haggerty
 @release internal
 @target 2.1.1
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TCP is the standard  Internet protocol for reliable, in-order delivery
of data across the  network.  Although inefficient, its ubiquity makes
it impossible to ignore; thus, blip provides a very simple TCP stack.
TCP is considerably more complicated then UDP, and requires careful
use in the embedded setting to prevent resource exhaustion.  It is
essential that one understand the BSD sockets API; this brief README
does not cover many details.

For memory-constrained operation, blip's TCP does not do any
receive-side buffering.  Instead, it will immediately dispatch
new, in-order data to the application and otherwise drop the segment.
Blip does provide send-buffering so that it can automatically
retransmit missing segments; this buffer may be of any size and is
provided by the application.  

Important parameters:

MSS: Maximum Segment Size: the maximum amount of data that a TCP packet
will contain.  Since blip immediately delivers new data, this is also
greater then or equal to the maximum amount of data which will ever be
delivered in a recv() call.

Window: TCP keeps the other side informed about how much buffer is
available for new data.  Since blip does not have a receive buffer,
this parameter is not adjusted by blip; only set to a reasonable
value.  Applications using TCP may wish to dynamically control this
value for various reasons.

Notes
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The TCP interface is located in
$LOWPAN_ROOT/tos/lib/net/blip/interfaces/Tcp.nc.  For the most part,
it should be familier.

Since the application is responsible for buffering, both accept() and
connect() require the implementer to include a buffer for the stack's
use.  Once passed to the stack, the buffer is reserved until a
closed() event is signaled on that socket.

A few of the most important caveats/brokeness:

 - there is no listen().  calling bind() on a socket also begins to listen.

 - there is no way to accept() multiple sockets like you can in Unix.
   More precisely, all the code would support it but then there is
   dynamic allocation since you have to allocate a new socket struct
   on the fly.

 - (sort of) as a result of these, if the socket is closed, you have
   to call bind() if you want to continue listening.

 - you'll need to carefully manage buffer and window sized by hand if
   you want to be sure of correct operation.  Make sure you check
   return codes from send() since it will fail if there is not enough
   local buffer for the entire request.


Example
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configuration {
  components new TcpSocketC() as TcpEcho;
  TCPEchoP.TcpEcho -> TcpEcho;
}

module {} implementation {
  // allocate a send buffer
  char tcp_buf[150];

  // accept connections from anyone.  no need to save the endpoint,
  // but this is the only time its available (add an API call?)
  event bool TcpEcho.accept(struct sockaddr_in6 *from, 
                            void **tx_buf, int *tx_buf_len) {
    *tx_buf = tcp_buf;
    *tx_buf_len = 150;
    // indicates we are accepting the connection
    return TRUE;
  }
  // potentially useful?
  event void TcpEcho.connectDone(error_t e) {}

  // just echo the data back.
  event void TcpEcho.recv(void *payload, uint16_t len) {
    call TcpEcho.send(payload,len);
  }

  // rebind to accept other connections.
  event void TcpEcho.closed(error_t e) {
    call Leds.led0Toggle();
    call TcpEcho.bind(7);
  }
}