How to use Netty for server to server binary websocket communication?

Question

BACKGROUND: I have application server logic that hosts stateful object instances. I plan to have multiple servers - each hosting stateful object instances. NOTE: this is not a cluster with the same objects mirrored, but more of a federated model.

Each instance of my application server is using Netty and supports HTTP and WebSockets.

I wish to use the Netty WebSocket plumbing as the communication layer for not only server_1/server_2, but also for server_1/object_A talking to server_2/object_X.

For Example:

Server_1 has objects {OA, OB, OC} and Server_2 has objects {OX, OY, OZ}
S1:OA could communicate with S2:OX
S1:OB could also communicate with S2:OX

QUESTION (s):

1) Is there a recommended approach to communicate between objects running in different servers using Netty? Are there any examples?
2) Should I cache the Channel between servers and funnel all object-object requests over that? Is this thread-safe?
3) OR, should I use separate Channels for server and object level communication - dynamically creating/destroying them as needed?

From a network utilization standpoint, I would think option #2 would be preferred for all bi-directional communication between Server_1 and Server_2.

If you need any clarification or more details, please don't hesitate to ask.

Norman Maurer · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-25 05:32:35Z

1

If you want to send over Java classes I would recommend to use the marshalling encoder/decoder that ships with Netty[1].

To your other question, all operations on a Channel are Thread-safe.

[1] https://github.com/netty/netty/tree/3/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/marshalling

answered Oct 25, 2012 at 5:32

Norman Maurer

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5 Comments

Bob DeRemer Over a year ago

Thanks, Norman! To follow-up on the options, am I correct in assuming 1 Channel between each respective server pairing would be recommended?

Bob DeRemer Over a year ago

On the marshalling aspect, we don't actually need to send java objects across, but data - and we have our own binary serialization/deserialization logic. If we're using our own binary encoding/decoding, is there a specific set of classes we should derive from when building the pipeline?

Norman Maurer Over a year ago

It really depends on how your "logic" is.. Maybe FrameDecoder and OneToOneEncoder, but I can only guess without more infos.

Norman Maurer Over a year ago

Yes one Channel is the way to go

Bob DeRemer Over a year ago

Excellent, thanks. As I'm cutting my teeth on Netty with this prototype, I'm sure I'll have some more questions as I dig deeper.

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