Java Networking with Netty
When building networked applications in Java, it helps to understand how TCP, HTTP, Netty, and gRPC fit together. This article walks through the layers of the stack, how request/response boundaries work, and how frameworks like Netty and gRPC help you build fast systems without wrestling with raw bytes. Transport Layer At its core, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a reliable, ordered stream of bytes. Thinking about a TCP connection is easy if you imagine it as two pipes: one from the client to the server and one from the server back to the client. Each pipe just carries bytes. TCP does NOT know about request or response boundaries. It delivers bytes in order, and it takes care of retransmissions, acknowledgements, and flow control so you do not have to. Following our pipe analogy, when you read from a TCP connection, imagine placing a bucket under the pipe; bytes drip in and you accumulate them until you hav...