Stream sockets (connection-oriented)

Stream sockets support connection-oriented communications. A Stream socket provides bidirectional, secured and sequential data flow, thus ensuring that the data is only transferred once and in the correct order.

Connection-oriented transfer in the communications domains AF_INET and AF_INET6

The record boundaries of the data are not retained for connection-oriented communication with stream sockets. Stream sockets are used to develop connection-oriented communications applications based on the TCP protocol.

Connection-oriented transfer in the communications domain AF_ISO

Connection-oriented communication in AF_ISO is record-oriented, i.e. the record boundaries remain intact. The communications applications are based on the ISO transport service.