Sending and receiving UDP packets?

Question

I have made a program to send an UDP packets from a client to a server.

Here is the transmitter code:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;

public class JavaApplication9 {    
    public static void main(String[] args) throws UnknownHostException, SocketException, IOException  {
        // TODO code application logic here
        byte[] buffer = {10,23,12,31,43,32,24};
        byte [] IP = {-64,-88,1,106};
        InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByAddress(IP);
        DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(
                buffer, buffer.length, address, 57
                );
        DatagramSocket datagramSocket = new DatagramSocket();
        datagramSocket.send(packet);
        System.out.println(InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress());
    }
}

The receiver code function is this:

public void run() {
    try {
        DatagramSocket serverSocket = new DatagramSocket(port);
        byte[] receiveData = new byte[8];
        byte[] sendData = new byte[8];

        while (true) {
              DatagramPacket receivePacket = new DatagramPacket(receiveData, receiveData.length);
              serverSocket.receive(receivePacket);
              String sentence = new String( receivePacket.getData());
              System.out.println("RECEIVED: " + sentence);
              InetAddress IPAddress = receivePacket.getAddress();
              String sendString = "polo";
              sendData = sendString.getBytes();
              DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length, IPAddress, port);
              serverSocket.send(sendPacket);
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

I have used the Wireshark program. The UDP packet is received in the Wireshark program at the receiver but the Java program wouldn't recognize it, the program just keeps listening to the port and nothing happens?

Answer 1

The receiver must set port of receiver to match port set in sender DatagramPacket. For debugging try listening on port > 1024 (e.g. 8000 or 9000). Ports < 1024 are typically used by system services and need admin access to bind on such a port.

If the receiver sends packet to the hard-coded port it's listening to (e.g. port 57) and the sender is on the same machine then you would create a loopback to the receiver itself. Always use the port specified from the packet and in case of production software would need a check in any case to prevent such a case.

Another reason a packet won't get to destination is the wrong IP address specified in the sender. UDP unlike TCP will attempt to send out a packet even if the address is unreachable and the sender will not receive an error indication. You can check this by printing the address in the receiver as a precaution for debugging.

In the sender you set:

 byte [] IP= { (byte)192, (byte)168, 1, 106 };
 InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByAddress(IP);

but might be simpler to use the address in string form:

 InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName("192.168.1.106");

In other words, you set target as 192.168.1.106. If this is not the receiver then you won't get the packet.

Here's a simple UDP Receiver that works :

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;

public class Receiver {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int port = args.length == 0 ? 57 : Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        new Receiver().run(port);
    }

    public void run(int port) {    
      try {
        DatagramSocket serverSocket = new DatagramSocket(port);
        byte[] receiveData = new byte[8];
        String sendString = "polo";
        byte[] sendData = sendString.getBytes("UTF-8");

        System.out.printf("Listening on udp:%s:%d%n",
                InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress(), port);     
        DatagramPacket receivePacket = new DatagramPacket(receiveData,
                           receiveData.length);

        while(true)
        {
              serverSocket.receive(receivePacket);
              String sentence = new String( receivePacket.getData(), 0,
                                 receivePacket.getLength() );
              System.out.println("RECEIVED: " + sentence);
              // now send acknowledgement packet back to sender     
              DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length,
                   receivePacket.getAddress(), receivePacket.getPort());
              serverSocket.send(sendPacket);
        }
      } catch (IOException e) {
              System.out.println(e);
      }
      // should close serverSocket in finally block
    }
}