NexNet.Quic 0.9.0

This package adds the Quic transport protocol to NexNet.

NexNet is a .NET real-time asynchronous networking library, providing developers with the capability to seamlessly incorporate server and client bidirectional, multiplexing, and event-driven functionality into applications. This framework streamlines the transmission of data bidirectionally between servers and clients with resilient connections.

Features

• Automatic reconnection upon timeout or socket losing connection.
• High performance Socket and Pipeline usage.
• Multiple transports and easy extensibility.
• Strong Typed Hubs & Clients.
• Server ↔ Client communication
  • Cancellable Invocations
  • Streaming byte data via INexusDuplexPipe with built-in congestion control.
  • Streaming classes/structs data via NexusChannel<T>
  • Multiplexing method invocations
  • Proxies can return:
    • void for "fire and forget" invocation situations such as notifications.
    • ValueTask for waiting for invocation completion.
    • ValueTask<T> which will return a value from the remote invocation method.
• Server can message multiple connected clients with a single invocation.
• Automatic reconnection of clients upon timeout or loss of connection.
• Thorough use of ValueTasks in hot paths for reduced invocation overhead.
• Ping system to detect timeouts from client and server side.
• No reflection. All hubs and proxies are Source Generated by the NexNet.Generator project. This allows for fast execution and easier tracing of bugs.
• Full asynchronous TPL usage throughout socket reading/writing, processing and execution of invocations and their return values.
• Minimal external package requirements.

Transports Supported

• Unix Domain Sockets (UDS)
• TCP
• TLS over TCP
• QUIC (UDP)
• WebSockets
• HttpSockets (Custom HTTP Negotiation)

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.

TCP

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

TLS over TCP

TLS over TCP enables secure, encrypted communication using SslStream on both server and client ends. While it maintains good performance, it introduces additional overhead due to encapsulation—using a Socket wrapped by a NetworkStream, further wrapped by an SslStream—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 connections. Implementation requires installing the libmsquic library (sudo apt install libmsquic on Ubuntu) and including the NexNet.Quic NuGet package.

WebSockets (ASP.NET Core)

WebSockets enable real-time, bidirectional data exchange between client and server over persistent TCP connections. NexNet utilizes Binary WebSocket streams, which introduce a minor overhead—specifically, 4 bytes per message header/data frame transmitted.

HttpSockets (ASP.NET Core - Custom HTTP Negotiation)

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

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