Introducing BOSH and WebSocket Transport protocols

BOSH and WebSocket protocolsThis time we will talk about transport protocols over the web, in particular, about BOSH and WebSocket.

Besides TCP (XMPP/SIP) and UDP (SIP only) transports, two other transports, BOSH and WebSocket, are available which are embedded inside existing TCP/HTTP stacks.

BOSH

Bidirectional-streams Over Synchronous HTTP (BOSH) allows real-time communication between a browser and a web server. The browser connects to the server and will keep the connection open as long as it has no data to send. When data is available, the server sends it over the open HTTP connection and closes the connection itself. This reduces the number of requests, as the browser is not continuously polling the server. The server retains a cache of events that the client missed between reconnections.

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SIP and XMPP standards in Unified Communications

In this blog article we will discuss the basic standards used for real-time communications — SIP and XMPP — what is the difference, how each of them works, and, which one to choose.

SIP and XMPP

The IETF has two documented standards for real-time communications that are widely implemented: SIP and XMPP.

These standards transport text information and rely on other standards for the actual media transmission.

As both support real-time communications, many question which solution is most suited to their needs.

Let’s briefly explore the history and purpose of both.

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