Stream sockets (connection-oriented)

Stream sockets support connection-oriented communications in the Internet communications domains AF_INET and AF_INET6, and in the local host communications domain AF_UNIX. A Stream socket provides bidirectional, secured and sequential data flow, thus ensuring that the data is only transferred once and in the correct order. The data record limits are lost when connection-oriented communications are used with stream sockets.

Stream sockets are used to develop connection-oriented communications applications based on the TCP protocol.