Bonjour Android, it's ZeroConf

IT’S ZEROCONFBonjour Android

Roberto Orgiu

Giuseppe Mariniello

Android Developer

Backend Developer

WHAT IS ZEROCONF?

“ZERO-CONFIGURATION NETWORKING IS A SET OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT AUTOMATICALLY CREATES A USABLE COMPUTER NETWORK BASED ON THE INTERNET PROTOCOL SUITE (TCP/IP) WHEN COMPUTERS OR NETWORK PERIPHERALS ARE INTERCONNECTED.“

WHAT IS ZEROCONF

WHAT IS ZEROCONF

“IT DOES NOT REQUIRE MANUAL OPERATOR INTERVENTION OR SPECIAL CONFIGURATION SERVERS.“

WHERE CAN WE FIND ZEROCONF?

ALMOST EVERYWHERE

BONJOUR ANDROID, IT’S ZEROCONF

THINK “DIFFERENT”

▸ ZeroConf is a standard

▸ UPnP/DLNA are somehow similar, but different people and ideas

▸ Apple has its own implementation, called Bonjour (once Rendezvous)

▸ On Android, we have very different solutions for using it

APPLE OFTEN REFERS TO ZEROCONF AS BONJOUR, GIVING THEIR OWN DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPTS


FUN FACT

Wut? Why do you even…?


HOW DOES IT WORK?Ehy! I am 192.168.1.50 and I have the service DroidConService running on port 56472!

Great! Exactly what I was looking for!


▸ No infrastructure needed

▸ Simplicity over scalability

▸ 4 areas: IP interface configuration, translation between host name and IP address, IP multicast address allocation, service discovery

▸ Aware of network changes

▸ Still a draft

HOW DOES IT WORK?


▸ Configure netmask

▸ Allocate unique IP address

IP INTERFACE CONFIGURATION


▸ Allows hostnames to be mapped to IP addresses and back

▸ Failure proof with retry mechanism

▸ Conflict detection

TRANSLATION BETWEEN HOST NAME AND IP ADDRESS


IP MULTICAST ADDRESS ALLOCATION

▸ List which of the scopes (local, site-local, link-local) are available

▸ Select a multicast address preventing conflicts


SERVICE DISCOVERY

▸ Service must be discoverable via identifier and/or type

▸ Discovery without the use of a service-specific protocol and should complete in a timely manner (10s of seconds)

▸ Prompt detection of new services in a timely manner (10s of seconds)

DRAF

T


HOW DOES IT WORK?

▸ Each part must start with _ (underscore)

▸ The second part only allows _tcp or _udp

_ServiceType._TransportProtocolName.

List of common services goo.gl/EXh1g


WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?

▸ API FROM 4.1

▸ JMDNS FOR JAVA

▸ APPLE NATIVE (C++) IMPLEMENTATION


JMDNS FOR JAVA

▸ Easy to implement

▸ Runs on the main thread, unless we specify otherwise

▸ Distributed as JAR or via Maven repo

▸ Long start-up time

▸ Compatible with all the Android versions


WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?

▸ API FROM 4.1

▸ JMDNS FOR JAVA



APPLE NATIVE (C++) IMPLEMENTATION

▸ Ported to Android by Apple

▸ Open-sourced

▸ Needs Android NDK

▸ Few projects come with it already packed in

▸ Short startup time

▸ More complex logic


WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?

▸ API FROM 4.1

▸ JMDNS FOR JAVA



ANDROID API

▸ From Android 4.1, custom attributes added with 5.1 (API 21)

▸ Already asynchronous, with return on the main thread

▸ Verbose, but easy to implement

▸ Based on two steps: discovery and resolution

▸ Only one service can be resolved at a time

http://developer.android.com/training/connect-devices-wirelessly/nsd.html


ANDROID API - SERVER

NsdServiceInfo serviceInfo = new NsdServiceInfo(); serviceInfo.setServiceName("DroidConService"); serviceInfo.setServiceType("_http._tcp."); serviceInfo.setPort(randomPort);

nsdManager = Context.getSystemService(Context.NSD_SERVICE); nsdManager.registerService(serviceInfo, NsdManager.PROTOCOL_DNS_SD, mRegistrationListener);

Remember to unregister the service upon app closing!


ANDROID API - CLIENT

class Resolver extends NsdManager.ResolveListener {

@Override public void onResolveFailed(NsdServiceInfo serviceInfo, int errorCode) {}

@Override public void onServiceResolved(NsdServiceInfo serviceInfo) { // here we can use our resolved service } };

Resolve resolveListener = new Resolve();



class Resolver extends NsdManager.ResolveListener {

@Override public void onResolveFailed(NsdServiceInfo serviceInfo, int errorCode) {}

@Override public void onServiceResolved(NsdServiceInfo serviceInfo) { // here we can use our resolved service } };

Resolve resolveListener = new Resolve();


ANDROID API - CLIENTclass SimpleDiscoveryListener extends NsdManager.DiscoveryListener { @Override public void onDiscoveryStarted(String regType) {} @Override public void onServiceFound(NsdServiceInfo service) { if (service.getServiceName().contains(“DroidConService")){ nsdManager.resolveService(service, resolveListener); } } @Override public void onServiceLost(NsdServiceInfo service) {} @Override public void onDiscoveryStopped(String serviceType) {} @Override public void onStartDiscoveryFailed(String serviceType, int errorCode) { nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(this); } @Override public void onStopDiscoveryFailed(String serviceType, int errorCode) { nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(this); }};


ANDROID API - CLIENTclass SimpleDiscoveryListener extends NsdManager.DiscoveryListener { @Override public void onDiscoveryStarted(String regType) {} @Override public void onServiceFound(NsdServiceInfo service) { if (service.getServiceName().contains(“DroidConService")){ nsdManager.resolveService(service, resolveListener); } } @Override public void onServiceLost(NsdServiceInfo service) {} @Override public void onDiscoveryStopped(String serviceType) {} @Override public void onStartDiscoveryFailed(String serviceType, int errorCode) { nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(this); } @Override public void onStopDiscoveryFailed(String serviceType, int errorCode) { nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(this); }};



SimpleDiscoveryListener discoveryListener = new SimpleDiscoveryListener(); nsdManager.discoverServices(SERVICE_TYPE,

NsdManager.PROTOCOL_DNS_SD, discoveryListener); nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(discoveryListener);



SimpleDiscoveryListener discoveryListener = new SimpleDiscoveryListener(); nsdManager.discoverServices(SERVICE_TYPE,

NsdManager.PROTOCOL_DNS_SD, discoveryListener); nsdManager.stopServiceDiscovery(discoveryListener);

ARE THERE BETTER WAYS OF DOING IT?

YES, THERE ARE!ARE THERE BETTER WAYS OF DOING IT


BETTER WAYS OF DOING IT

▸ better-zeroconf

▸ RxDNSSD

▸ RxBonjour

▸ ZeRxConf

▸ android-mdns

▸ JmDNS

▸ Apple mDNS

▸ Apple mDNS

▸ JmDNS + Android Native APIs

▸ Apple mDNS

DEMO TIME!

Q & ACHECK THE REPO @ GITHUB.COM/ENNOVA-IT/DROIDCON-DEMO

http://github.com/Ennova-IT/DroidCon-Demo

BONJOUR ANDROID, IT’S ZEROCONFTHANKS FOR WATCHING!

Technology

Bonjour Android, it's ZeroConf