Overview

The socket layer in an IP stack contains socket APIs that enable the transport layer to interface with the application layer. The socket APIs make the various protocol-specific features available to an application.

SCTP contains the existing socket APIs and the SCTP-specific APIs. Both these APIs enable SCTP to interface with the application layer. These APIs are also compatible with TCP applications that can be migrated to SCTP with minimum changes.

Following are the design objectives of the SCTP socket APIs:

The following sections discuss the differences between the socket API and the SCTP socket APIs, the different SCTP socket API styles, data structures that enable applications to control an association, and socket APIs to modify the socket options.