Monitering Multiple Sockets in one thread

Question

Hi all
i have a problem.....i want to create and moniter multiple sockets BUT Due to resourse problems i cannot create as many threads. I want to use multiple sockets in one thread.
Cani do something where i can have array of sockets and poll for data in a single while loop for all the sockets...OR u may suggest another solution for my porblem of using multiple sockets in one thread.
thanks in advance
Sai Burra

Answer 1

Here's a pseudocode solution I've used:
Create a thread to listen to incoming connections. Upon incoming connection, add the socket and inputstream to the incoming messages listener thread.
Create a threadpool for outgoing messages.
Create a thread to process incoming messages.
Incoming message listener thread:
Create a hashtable of sockets. Socket is the key, inputstream is the value.
Loop through each key, and assuming BufferedReader input you can poll by using (input.isReady()). If isReady() returns true, that means there is data on the stream coming in, so you'll need to process it.
After processing the data, call a thread from your outgoing messages threadpool to send the response - in case there is blocking, you'll still be able to process the rest of your data.
Sleep the incoming messages thread for 200 ms (300-400ms is quite adequate for real time processing I've found, at least the slowdown isn't noticable).
This should work for what you're talking about.