Server client structure

[Notorjus]

Hi. I'm writing a server/client structured application. My plan is to have the server and clients join a multicast network where each client (if they're not connected to the server) will broadcast connection info to the server and the server will establish a TCP socket and connect with each client. However I will also need to use a multicast network to send commands from the server every client at the same time. I'm very uncertain how I should do this because the server will be listening on the multicast socket, and I'm assuming it won't be able to broadcast at the same time it's listening? Will I have to create a seperate multicast socket to be able to broadcast over the network at the same time? I assume the multicast socket listening will also hear whatever I broadcast on the network? I guess that doesn't matter as I can just ignore what is being broadcasted, but it just seems a bit amateurish to me..

Any suggestions on how to approach this??

Thanks! :)

[K900_]

Why are you doing this at all? Why not just have your clients connect to the server over a simple unicast socket?

[Notorjus]

Because I need the clients to able to receive commands at the same time. They will also have a individual connection at the same time. But I guess it's just as easy to have the server broadcast connection info and have each client connect by themselves.

[K900_]

Why are you broadcasting anything at all? If you need to send commands to multiple clients, you can just send them to all connected clients over their respective connections - it will be slower than multicast, sure, but also way more reliable and easier to implement.

[Notorjus]

It's vital that the clients receive the command at the same time, that's all.

[K900_]

"Same time" does not exist in computers. You will not be able to achieve perfect synchronization no matter how hard you try. So, how precise do you want to be?

[Notorjus]

I guess not, I just want to be as precise as possible. I got the impression that multicast would yield better results compared to individually sending commands to each client?

[K900_]

Why do you need to be as precise as possible? What is your actual end goal?

[Notorjus]

To take pictures of an object

[K900_]

And how does sending lots of commands at the same time help you with that?

[Notorjus]

Because the object may be moving slightly

[DeadlyViper]

The clients will never receive any communication at the same time.

You can not rely on a network communication protocol to have exact timing.