Post sockets: Towards an evolvable network transport interface

The traditional Sockets API is showing its age, and no longer provides effective support for modern networked applications. This has led to a proliferation of non-standard extensions, alternative APIs, and workarounds that enable new features and allow applications to make good use of the network, but are difficult to use, and require expert knowledge that is not widespread. In this paper, we present Post Sockets, a proposed new standard network API, that is designed to support modern network transport protocols and features, while raising the level of abstraction and enhancing usability. Specifically, Post Sockets aims to give portable applications the ability to use a clear, messages based, interface to multi-path and multi-stream transports, rendezvous and connection racing, and fast connection re-establishment.