Feb. 23, 2021
WebSocket: WebSocket is bidirectional, a full-duplex protocol that is used in the same scenario of client-server communication, unlike HTTP it starts from ws:// or wss://. It is a stateful protocol, which means the connection between client and server will keep alive until it is terminated by either party (client or server). after closing the connection by either of the client and server, the connection is terminated from both the end.
Stateless protocol - HTTP
HTTP is stateless protocol runs on the top of TCP which is a connection-oriented protocol it guarantees the delivery of data packet transfer using the three-way handshaking methods and re-transmit the lost packets.
HTTP can run on the top of any reliable connection-oriented protocol such as TCP, SCTP. When a client sends HTTP request to the server, a TCP connection is open between the client and server and after getting the response the TCP connection gets terminated, each HTTP request open separate TCP connection to the server, for e.g. if client send 10 requests to the server the 10 separate HTTP connection will be opened. and get closed after getting the response/fallback.
HTTP message information encoded in ASCII, each HTTP request message composed HTTP protocol version(HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2), HTTP methods (GET/POST etc.), HTTP headers (content type, content length), host information, etc. and the body which contain the actual message which is being transferred to the server. HTTP headers varied from 200 bytes to 2 KB in size, the common size of HTTP header is 700-800 bytes. When web application uses more cookies and other tools at client-side that expend storage features of agent it reduces the HTTP header payload.
When can a web socket be used:
- Real-time web application: Real-time web application uses a web socket to show the data at the client end, which is continuously being sent by the backend server. In WebSocket, data is continuously pushed/transmitted into the same connection which is already open, that is why web socket is faster and improves the application performance.
For e.g. in the trading website or bitcoin trading, that is the most volatile thing which is happening over there, for displaying the price fluctuation and movement data is continuously pushed by the backend server to the client end by using the web socket channel.
- Gaming application: In a Gaming application, you might focus on that, data is continuously receiving by the server and without refreshing the UI, it will take effect on the screen, UI gets automatically refreshed without even establishing the new connection, so it is very helpful in a Gaming application.
- Chat application: Chat application uses WebSocket to stablish the connection only once for exchange, publishing and broadcasting the message among the subscriber. it reuses the same WebSocket connection, for sending and receiving the message and one to one message transfer.
When not to use WebSocket: WebSocket can be used if we want any real-time updated or continuous streams of data which is being transmitted over the network. If we want to fetch old data, or want to get the data only once to process it with an application we should go with HTTP protocol, old data which is not required very frequently or fetched only once can be query by the simple HTTP request, so in this scenario better not use WebSocket.
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