netty-websocket-http2

Netty based implementation of rfc8441 - bootstrapping websockets with http/2

Library addresses 2 use cases: for application servers and clients, It is transparent use of existing http1 websocket handlers on top of http2 streams; for gateways/proxies, It is websockets-over-http2 support with no http1 dependencies and minimal overhead.

https://jauntsdn.com/post/netty-websocket-http2/

much faster http1 codec

Integration with jauntsdn/netty-websocket-http1 codec for websocket-http1 frames processing improves throughput 1.4x - 1.7x for small messages.

websocket channel API

Intended for application servers and clients.
Allows transparent application of existing http1 websocket handlers on top of http2 stream.

• Server

EchoWebSocketHandler http1WebSocketHandler = new EchoWebSocketHandler();

 Http2WebSocketServerHandler http2webSocketHandler =
       Http2WebSocketServerBuilder.create()
              .acceptor(
                   (ctx, path, subprotocols, request, response) -> {
                     switch (path) {
                       case "/echo":
                         if (subprotocols.contains("echo.jauntsdn.com")
                             && acceptUserAgent(request, response)) {
                           /*selecting subprotocol for accepted requests is mandatory*/
                           Http2WebSocketAcceptor.Subprotocol
                                  .accept("echo.jauntsdn.com", response);
                           return ctx.executor()
                                  .newSucceededFuture(http1WebSocketHandler);
                         }
                         break;
                       case "/echo_all":
                         if (subprotocols.isEmpty() 
                                  && acceptUserAgent(request, response)) {
                           return ctx.executor()
                                  .newSucceededFuture(http1WebSocketHandler);
                         }
                         break;
                     }
                     return ctx.executor()
                         .newFailedFuture(
                             new WebSocketHandshakeException(
                                  "websocket rejected, path: " + path));
                   })
              .build();

      ch.pipeline()
           .addLast(sslHandler, 
                    http2frameCodec, 
                    http2webSocketHandler);

• Client

 Channel channel =
        new Bootstrap()
            .handler(
                new ChannelInitializer<SocketChannel>() {
                  @Override
                  protected void initChannel(SocketChannel ch) {

                    Http2WebSocketClientHandler http2WebSocketClientHandler =
                        Http2WebSocketClientBuilder.create()
                            .handshakeTimeoutMillis(15_000)
                            .build();

                    ch.pipeline()
                        .addLast(
                            sslHandler,
                            http2FrameCodec,
                            http2WebSocketClientHandler);
                  }
                })
            .connect(address)
            .sync()
            .channel();

Http2WebSocketClientHandshaker handShaker = Http2WebSocketClientHandshaker.create(channel);

Http2Headers headers =
   new DefaultHttp2Headers().set("user-agent", "jauntsdn-websocket-http2-client/1.2.6");
ChannelFuture handshakeFuture =
   /*http1 websocket handler*/
   handShaker.handshake("/echo", headers, new EchoWebSocketHandler());
    
handshakeFuture.channel().writeAndFlush(new TextWebSocketFrame("hello http2 websocket"));

Successfully handshaked http2 stream spawns websocket subchannel, with provided
http1 websocket handlers on its pipeline.

Runnable demo is available in netty-websocket-http2-example module - channelserver, channelclient.

websocket handshake only API

Intended for intermediaries/proxies.
Only verifies whether http2 stream is valid websocket, then passes it down the pipeline as POST request with x-protocol=websocket header.

      Http2WebSocketServerHandler http2webSocketHandler =
          Http2WebSocketServerBuilder.buildHandshakeOnly();

      Http2StreamsHandler http2StreamsHandler = new Http2StreamsHandler();
      ch.pipeline()
           .addLast(sslHandler, 
                    frameCodec, 
                    http2webSocketHandler, 
                    http2StreamsHandler);

Works with both callbacks-style Http2ConnectionHandler and frames based Http2FrameCodec.

Http2WebSocketServerBuilder.buildHandshakeOnly();

Runnable demo is available in netty-websocket-http2-example module - handshakeserver, channelclient.

configuration

Initial settings of server http2 codecs (Http2ConnectionHandler or Http2FrameCodec) should contain SETTINGS_ENABLE_CONNECT_PROTOCOL=1 parameter to advertise websocket-over-http2 support.

Also server http2 codecs must disable built-in headers validation because It is not compatible with rfc8441 due to newly introduced :protocol pseudo-header. All websocket handlers provided by this library do headers validation on their own - both for websocket and non-websocket requests.

Above configuration may be done with utility methods of Http2WebSocketServerBuilder

public static Http2FrameCodecBuilder configureHttp2Server(
                                          Http2FrameCodecBuilder http2Builder);

public static Http2ConnectionHandlerBuilder configureHttp2Server(
                                          Http2ConnectionHandlerBuilder http2Builder)

compression & subprotocols

Client and server permessage-deflate compression configuration is shared by all streams

Http2WebSocketServerBuilder.compression(enabled);

or

Http2WebSocketServerBuilder.compression(
      compressionLevel,
      allowServerWindowSize,
      preferredClientWindowSize,
      allowServerNoContext,
      preferredClientNoContext);

Client subprotocols are configured on per-path basis

EchoWebSocketHandler http1WebsocketHandler = new EchoWebSocketHandler();
ChannelFuture handshake =
        handShaker.handshake("/echo", "subprotocol", headers, http1WebsocketHandler);

On a server It is responsibility of Http2WebSocketAcceptor to select supported subprotocol with

Http2WebSocketAcceptor.Subprotocol.accept(subprotocol, response);

lifecycle

Handshake events and several shutdown options are available when using Websocket channel style APIs.

handshake events

Events are fired on parent channel, also on websocket channel if one gets created

• Http2WebSocketHandshakeStartEvent(websocketId, path, subprotocols, timestampNanos, requestHeaders)
• Http2WebSocketHandshakeErrorEvent(webSocketId, path, subprotocols, timestampNanos, responseHeaders, error)
• Http2WebSocketHandshakeSuccessEvent(webSocketId, path, subprotocols, timestampNanos, responseHeaders)

close events

Outbound Http2WebSocketLocalCloseEvent on websocket channel pipeline closes http2 stream by sending empty DATA frame with END_STREAM flag set.

Graceful and RST stream shutdown by remote endpoint is represented with inbound Http2WebSocketRemoteCloseEvent (with type CLOSE_REMOTE_ENDSTREAM and CLOSE_REMOTE_RESET respectively) on websocket channel pipeline.

Graceful connection shutdown by remote with GO_AWAY frame is represented by inbound Http2WebSocketRemoteGoAwayEvent on websocket channel pipeline.

shutdown

Closing websocket channel terminates its http2 stream by sending RST frame.

validation & write error events

Both API style handlers send Http2WebSocketHandshakeErrorEvent for invalid websocket-over-http2 and http requests. For http2 frame write errors Http2WebSocketWriteErrorEvent is sent on parent channel if auto-close is not enabled; otherwise exception is delivered with ChannelPipeline.fireExceptionCaught followed by immediate close.

flow control

Inbound flow control is done automatically as soon as DATA frames are received. Library relies on netty's DefaultHttp2LocalFlowController for refilling receive window.

Outbound flow control is expressed as websocket channels writability change on send window exhaust/refill, provided by DefaultHttp2RemoteFlowController.

websocket stream weight

Initial stream weight is configured with

Http2WebSocketClientBuilder.streamWeight(weight);

it can be updated by firing Http2WebSocketStreamWeightUpdateEvent on websocket channel pipeline.

performance

Library relies on capabilities provided by netty's Http2ConnectionHandler so performance characteristics should be similar. netty-websocket-http2-perftest module contains application that gives rough throughput/latency estimate. The application is started with perf_server.sh, perf_client.sh.

On modern box one can expect following results for single websocket, 140 bytes payload (TLS connection, per-core throughput):

15:15:23.978 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.messagecodec.client.Main p50 => 639 micros
15:15:23.978 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.messagecodec.client.Main p95 => 947 micros
15:15:23.978 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.messagecodec.client.Main p99 => 1110 micros
15:15:23.978 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.messagecodec.client.Main throughput => 505140 messages
15:15:23.978 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.messagecodec.client.Main throughput => 69062.11 kbytes

Integration with jauntsdn/netty-websocket-http1 codec for websocket-http1 frames processing significantly improves throughput:

15:13:10.483 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.callbackscodec.client.Main p50 => 492 micros
15:13:10.484 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.callbackscodec.client.Main p95 => 702 micros
15:13:10.484 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.callbackscodec.client.Main p99 => 825 micros
15:13:10.484 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.callbackscodec.client.Main throughput => 746880 messages
15:13:10.484 epollEventLoopGroup-2-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.perftest.callbackscodec.client.Main throughput => 102112.5 kbytes

To evaluate performance with multiple connections we compose an application comprised with simple echo server, and client sending batches of messages periodically over single websocket per connection (approximately models chat application)

With 25k active connections each sending batches of 5-10 messages of 0.2-0.5 KBytes over single websocket every 15-30seconds, the results are as follows (measured over time spans of 5 seconds):

11:32:44.080 pool-2-thread-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.stresstest.client.Main connection success   ==> 25000
11:32:44.080 pool-2-thread-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.stresstest.client.Main handshake success    ==> 25000
11:32:44.080 pool-2-thread-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.stresstest.client.Main messages p99, micros ==> 177
11:32:44.080 pool-2-thread-1 com.jauntsdn.netty.handler.codec.http2.websocketx.stresstest.client.Main messages p50, micros ==> 91

examples

netty-websocket-http2-example module contains demos showcasing both API styles, with this library/browser as clients.

• channelserver, channelclient packages for websocket subchannel API demos.
• handshakeserver, channelclient packages for handshake only API demo.
• multiprotocolserver, multiprotocolclient packages for demo of server handling htt1/http2 websockets on the same port.
• lwsclient package for client demo that runs against https://libwebsockets.org/testserver/ which hosts websocket-over-http2 server implemented with libwebsockets - popular C-based networking library.

browser example

Channelserver example serves web page at https://www.localhost:8099 that sends pings to /echo endpoint.

Currently Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge support websockets-over-http2.

build & binaries

./gradlew

Releases are published on MavenCentral

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.jauntsdn.netty:netty-websocket-http2:1.2.6'
}

LICENSE

Copyright 2020-Present Maksym Ostroverkhov.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.