Netty is a
non-blocking I/O
In computer science, asynchronous I/O (also non-sequential I/O) is a form of input/output processing that permits other processing to continue before the I/O operation has finished. A name used for asynchronous I/O in the Windows API is '' over ...
client-server
framework for the development of
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
network applications such as protocol servers and clients. The asynchronous
event-driven network application framework and tools are used to simplify
network programming such as
TCP and
UDP socket servers. Netty includes an implementation of the
reactor pattern
The reactor software design pattern is an event handling strategy that can respond to many potential service requests concurrently. The pattern's key component is an event loop, running in a ''single'' thread or process, which demultiplexes inc ...
of programming. Originally developed by
JBoss
WildFly, formerly known as JBoss AS, or simply JBoss, is an application server written by JBoss, now developed by Red Hat. WildFly is written in Java and implements the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) specification. It runs on mult ...
, Netty is now developed and maintained by the Netty Project Community.
Besides being an asynchronous network application framework, Netty also includes built-in implementations of
SSL/
TLS,
HTTP
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, wher ...
,
HTTP/2
HTTP/2 (originally named HTTP/2.0) is a major revision of the HTTP network protocol used by the World Wide Web. It was derived from the earlier experimental SPDY protocol, originally developed by Google. HTTP/2 was developed by the HTTP Working ...
,
HTTP/3
HTTP/3 is the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol used to exchange information on the World Wide Web, complementing the widely deployed HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2. Unlike previous versions which relied on the well-established TCP ...
,
WebSocket
WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing a full-duplex, simultaneous two-way communication channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. The WebSocket protocol was standardized by the Internet Engineering ...
s,
DNS
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various informatio ...
,
Protocol Buffers
Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) is a free and open-source cross-platform data format used to serialize structured data. It is useful in developing programs that communicate with each other over a network or for storing data. The method involves an ...
,
SPDY and other protocols. Netty is not a Java
web container
A web container (also known as a servlet container;
and compare "webcontainer"
) is the component of a web server that interacts with Jakarta Servlets. A web container is responsible for managing the lifecycle of servlets, mapping a URL to a pa ...
, but is able to run inside one, and supports message
compression. Netty has been actively developed since 2004.
Beginning with version 4.0.0, Netty also supports the usage of
NIO.2 as a
backend, along with
NIO and blocking Java sockets.
See also
*
Application server
An application server is a server that hosts applications or software that delivers a business application through a communication protocol. For a typical web application, the application server sits behind the web servers.
An application ser ...
*
Node.js
*
Twisted (software)
*
Apache MINA
*
References
External links
* {{Official website
Java platform
Message-oriented middleware