Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) for Node.js

This is an implementation of SCTP network protocol (RFC4960) in plain Javascript.

Module presents the socket interface of Net module. Sockets for SCTP are described in RFC6458.

Module status

Implementation of RFC4960 is currently incomplete. At least it lacks handling silly window syndrome (SWS). Module is suitable for development purposes and small projects, not for production.

Module is being tested against sctp_test and SCTP Conformance Tests according to ETSI TS 102 369.

Demo

Assume local address is 192.168.1.216, remote is 192.168.1.16.

Run test as follows:

on local machine:
cd examples
DEBUG=* node server.js

on remote machine:
sctp_test -H 192.168.1.16 -P 3000 -h 192.168.1.216 -p 3000 -s -x 100000 -c 1

Installation

npm install sctp

Example

const sctp = require('sctp')

const server = sctp.createServer()

server.on('connection', socket => {
  console.log('remote socket connected from', socket.remoteAddress, socket.remotePort)
  socket.on('data', data => {
    console.log('server socket received data', data)
    socket.write(Buffer.from('010003040000001000110008000003ea', 'hex'))
  })
})

server.listen({port: 2905}, () => {
  console.log('server listening')
})

const socket = sctp.connect({host: '127.0.0.1', port: 2905}, () => {
    console.log('socket connected')
    socket.write(Buffer.from('010003010000001000110008000003ea', 'hex'))
  }
)

socket.on('data', buffer => {
  console.log('socket received data from server', buffer)
  socket.end()
  server.close()
  process.exit()
})

Different underlying transport

It is possible to run SCTP protocol on top of IP transport layer or on top of DTLS transport.

Normal mode (IP transport)

SCTP over IP is widely used in telecommunications in such upper layer protocols like Sigtran (M3UA, M2PA, M2UA) and Diameter.

For operation in normal mode this module needs raw-socket Node.js module as IP network layer. Raw-socket module requires compilation during installation, but builds on most popular platforms (Linux, Windows, MacOS). This makes sctp module multi-platform as Node.js itself.

Sctp will try to dynamically require raw-socket module. Raw socket mode does not prevent sctp to be used in with UDP/DTLS (see below), but allows to remove direct dependency on binary module.

You may have to install raw-socket module manually.

Prerequisites for building raw-socket module

Windows:

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools
npm install --global node-gyp

CentOS:

yum install centos-release-scl-rh
yum install devtoolset-3-gcc devtoolset-3-gcc-c++
scl enable devtoolset-3 bash

MacOS: install Xcode, accept license

Need root privileges

Quotation from raw-socket README:

Some operating system versions may restrict the use of raw sockets to privileged users. If this is the case an exception will be thrown on socket creation using a message similar to Operation not permitted (this message is likely to be different depending on operating system version).

Disable Linux Kernel SCTP

Linux Kernel SCTP should be disabled, because it conflicts with any other implementation. To prevent the "sctp" kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to a file in the directory "/etc/modprobe.d/"

install sctp /bin/true

UDP / WebRTC mode (DTLS transport)

This application of SCTP protocol is described in RFC8261.

The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) as defined in RFC4960 is a transport protocol running on top of the network protocols IPv4 [RFC0791] or IPv6 [RFC8200]. This document specifies how SCTP is used on top of the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol. DTLS 1.0 is defined in [RFC4347], and the latest version when this RFC was published, DTLS 1.2, is defined in [RFC6347]. This encapsulation is used, for example, within the WebRTC protocol suite (see [RTC-OVERVIEW] for an overview) for transporting non-SRTP data between browsers.

Underlying transport layer should implement UDP API. Actually, plain UDP may be used also.

In this mode Node.js application can be a peer in WebRTC data channel.

Note: currently association in UDP mode can not detect peer restart and handle new unexpected INIT properly. This bug is to be fixed. Please, change port as a workaround.

Usage

You need to provide 'udpTransport' option when connecting socket or creating server:

let socket = sctp.connect({
       passive: true,
       localPort: 5000,
       port: 5000,
       udpTransport: myDTLSSocket,
     }

In UDP/DTLS mode host and localAddress will be ignored, because addressing is provided by underlying transport.

To use normal UDP socket, you should provide 'udpPeer':

let socket = sctp.connect({
       passive: true,
       localPort: 5000,
       port: 5000,
       udpTransport: udpSocket,
       udpPeer: {
         host: '192.168.0.123',
         port: 15002
       }
     }

See examples/udp.js

Also note that in most cases "passive" connect is a better alternative to creating server.

passive option disables active connect to remote peer. Socket waits for remote connection, allowing it only from indicated remote port. This unusual option doesn't exist in TCP API.

Requirements

Node.js version >=6.0.0

Debugging

Set environment variable DEBUG=sctp:*

Performance

Load-testing against sctp_test shows that performance of sctp module in real world use cases is just about 2-3 times slower than native Linux Kernel SCTP implementation.

Documentation

Refer to Node.js Net API.

Several existing differences explained below.

new net.Socket([options])

options [Object]

For SCTP socketss, available options are:

ppid [number] Payload protocol id (see below)
stream_id [number] SCTP stream id. Default: 0
unordered [boolean] Indicate unordered mode. Default: false
no_bundle [boolean] Disable chunk bundling. Default: false

Note: SCTP does not support a half-open state (like TCP) wherein one side may continue sending data while the other end is closed.

socket.connect(options[, connectListener])

options [Object]
connectListener [Function] Common parameter of socket.connect() methods. Will be added as a listener for the 'connect' event once.

For SCTP connections, available options are:

port [number] Required. Port the socket should connect to.
host [string] Host the socket should connect to.
localAddress [string] Local address the socket should connect from.
localPort [number] Local port the socket should connect from.
MIS [number] Maximum inbound streams. Default: 2
OS [number] Requested outbound streams. Default: 2
passive [boolean] Indicates passive mode. Socket will not connect, but allow connection of remote socket from host:port. Default: false
udpTransport [Object] UDP transport socket
ppid [number] default PPID for packets. Default: 0

socket.createStream(streamId, ppid)

Creates SCTP stream. Those are SCTP socket sub-streams. If stream already exists, returns it. Stream 0 always exists.

streamId [number] stream id. Default: 0
ppid [number] default PPID for packets (if not set, socket setting is used)

After the association is initialized, the valid outbound stream identifier range for either endpoint shall be 0 to min(local OS, remote MIS)-1.

You can check this negotiated value by referring to socket.OS after 'connect' event. id should be less the socket.OS.

Result is stream.Writable.

const stream = socket.createStream(1)
stream.write('some data')

socket.write(buffer)

It is possible to change PPID per chunk by setting buffer.ppid to desired value.

buffer.ppid = sctp.PPID.WEBRTC_STRING

Socket events

See Net module documentation.

For SCTP additional event 'stream' is defined. It signals that incoming data chunk were noticed with new SCTP stream id.

socket.on('stream', (stream, id) => {
  stream.on('data', data => {
    // Incoming data (data.ppid indicates the SCTP message PPID value)
  })
})

sctp.defaults(options)

Function sets default module parameters. Names follow net.sctp conventions. Returns current default parameters.

See sysctl -a | grep sctp

Example:

sctp.defaults({
  rto_initial: 500,
  rto_min: 300,
  rto_max: 1000,
  sack_timeout: 150,
  sack_freq: 2,
})

sctp.PPID

sctp.PPID is an object with SCTP Payload Protocol Identifiers

{
  SCTP: 0,
  IUA: 1,
  M2UA: 2,
  M3UA: 3,
  SUA: 4,
  M2PA: 5,
  V5UA: 6,
  H248: 7,
  BICC: 8,
  ...
  }

sctp

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) for Node.js

Module status

Demo

Installation

Example

Different underlying transport

Normal mode (IP transport)

Prerequisites for building raw-socket module

Need root privileges

Disable Linux Kernel SCTP

UDP / WebRTC mode (DTLS transport)

Usage

Requirements

Debugging

Performance

Documentation

new net.Socket([options])

socket.connect(options[, connectListener])

socket.createStream(streamId, ppid)

socket.write(buffer)

Socket events

sctp.defaults(options)

sctp.PPID

RFC to implement

Author

Credits

Readme

Keywords

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sctp

Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) for Node.js

Module status

Demo

Installation

Example

Different underlying transport

Normal mode (IP transport)

Prerequisites for building raw-socket module

Need root privileges

Disable Linux Kernel SCTP

UDP / WebRTC mode (DTLS transport)

Usage

Requirements

Debugging

Performance

Documentation

new net.Socket([options])

socket.connect(options[, connectListener])

socket.createStream(streamId, ppid)

socket.write(buffer)

Socket events

sctp.defaults(options)

sctp.PPID

RFC to implement

Author

Credits

Readme

Keywords

Package Sidebar

Install

Repository

Homepage

DownloadsWeekly Downloads

Version

License

Unpacked Size

Total Files

Last publish

Collaborators

Weekly Downloads