Added in API level 26

MulticastChannel

interface MulticastChannel : NetworkChannel

java.nio.channels.MulticastChannel

Known Direct Subclasses DatagramChannel DatagramChannel A selectable channel for datagram-oriented sockets.

A network channel that supports Internet Protocol (IP) multicasting.

IP multicasting is the transmission of IP datagrams to members of a group that is zero or more hosts identified by a single destination address.

In the case of a channel to an IPv4 socket, the underlying operating system optionally supports RFC 2236: Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 2 (IGMPv2). When IGMPv2 is supported then the operating system may additionally support source filtering as specified by RFC 3376: Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 3 (IGMPv3). For channels to an IPv6 socket, the equivalent standards are RFC 2710: Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6 and RFC 3810: Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2) for IPv6.

The join(java.net.InetAddress,java.net.NetworkInterface) method is used to join a group and receive all multicast datagrams sent to the group. A channel may join several multicast groups and may join the same group on several interfaces. Membership is dropped by invoking the drop method on the returned MembershipKey. If the underlying platform supports source filtering then the block and unblock methods can be used to block or unblock multicast datagrams from particular source addresses.

The join(java.net.InetAddress,java.net.NetworkInterface,java.net.InetAddress) method is used to begin receiving datagrams sent to a group whose source address matches a given source address. This method throws UnsupportedOperationException if the underlying platform does not support source filtering. Membership is cumulative and this method may be invoked again with the same group and interface to allow receiving datagrams from other source addresses. The method returns a MembershipKey that represents membership to receive datagrams from the given source address. Invoking the key's drop method drops membership so that datagrams from the source address can no longer be received.

Platform dependencies

The multicast implementation is intended to map directly to the native multicasting facility. Consequently, the following items should be considered when developing an application that receives IP multicast datagrams:

1. The creation of the channel should specify the ProtocolFamily that corresponds to the address type of the multicast groups that the channel will join. There is no guarantee that a channel to a socket in one protocol family can join and receive multicast datagrams when the address of the multicast group corresponds to another protocol family. For example, it is implementation specific if a channel to an IPv6 socket can join an IPv4 multicast group and receive multicast datagrams sent to the group.
2. The channel's socket should be bound to the wildcard address. If the socket is bound to a specific address, rather than the wildcard address then it is implementation specific if multicast datagrams are received by the socket.
3. The SO_REUSEADDR option should be enabled prior to binding the socket. This is required to allow multiple members of the group to bind to the same address.

Usage Example:

// join multicast group on this interface, and also use this
      // interface for outgoing multicast datagrams
      NetworkInterface ni = NetworkInterface.getByName("hme0");
 
      DatagramChannel dc = DatagramChannel.open(StandardProtocolFamily.INET)
          .setOption(StandardSocketOptions.SO_REUSEADDR, true)
          .bind(new InetSocketAddress(5000))
          .setOption(StandardSocketOptions.IP_MULTICAST_IF, ni);
 
      InetAddress group = InetAddress.getByName("225.4.5.6");
 
      MembershipKey key = dc.join(group, ni);
  

Summary

Public methods
abstract Unit	close() Closes this channel.
abstract MembershipKey!	join(group: InetAddress!, interf: NetworkInterface!) Joins a multicast group to begin receiving all datagrams sent to the group, returning a membership key.
abstract MembershipKey!	join(group: InetAddress!, interf: NetworkInterface!, source: InetAddress!) Joins a multicast group to begin receiving datagrams sent to the group from a given source address.

Inherited functions
From class NetworkChannel NetworkChannel! bind(local: SocketAddress!) Binds the channel's socket to a local address. This method is used to establish an association between the socket and a local address. Once an association is established then the socket remains bound until the channel is closed. If the local parameter has the value null then the socket will be bound to an address that is assigned automatically. SocketAddress! getLocalAddress() Returns the socket address that this channel's socket is bound to. Where the channel is bound to an Internet Protocol socket address then the return value from this method is of type . T getOption(name: SocketOption<T>!) Returns the value of a socket option. NetworkChannel! setOption(name: SocketOption<T>!, value: T) Sets the value of a socket option. MutableSet<SocketOption<*>!>! supportedOptions() Returns a set of the socket options supported by this channel. This method will continue to return the set of options even after the channel has been closed.
From class Channel Unit close() Closes this channel. After a channel is closed, any further attempt to invoke I/O operations upon it will cause a ClosedChannelException to be thrown. If this channel is already closed then invoking this method has no effect. This method may be invoked at any time. If some other thread has already invoked it, however, then another invocation will block until the first invocation is complete, after which it will return without effect. Boolean isOpen() Tells whether or not this channel is open.

Public methods

close

Added in API level 26

abstract fun close(): Unit

Closes this channel.

If the channel is a member of a multicast group then the membership is dropped. Upon return, the membership-key will be invalid.

This method otherwise behaves exactly as specified by the Channel interface.

Exceptions
java.lang.Exception	if this resource cannot be closed
java.io.IOException	If an I/O error occurs

join

Added in API level 26

abstract fun join(
    group: InetAddress!, 
    interf: NetworkInterface!
): MembershipKey!

Joins a multicast group to begin receiving all datagrams sent to the group, returning a membership key.

If this channel is currently a member of the group on the given interface to receive all datagrams then the membership key, representing that membership, is returned. Otherwise this channel joins the group and the resulting new membership key is returned. The resulting membership key is not source-specific.

A multicast channel may join several multicast groups, including the same group on more than one interface. An implementation may impose a limit on the number of groups that may be joined at the same time.

Parameters
group	InetAddress!: The multicast address to join
interf	NetworkInterface!: The network interface on which to join the group

Return
MembershipKey!	The membership key

Exceptions
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException	If the group parameter is not a multicast address, or the group parameter is an address type that is not supported by this channel
java.lang.IllegalStateException	If the channel already has source-specific membership of the group on the interface
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException	If the channel's socket is not an Internet Protocol socket, or the platform does not support multicasting
java.nio.channels.ClosedChannelException	If this channel is closed
java.io.IOException	If an I/O error occurs
java.lang.SecurityException	If a security manager is set, and its checkMulticast method denies access to the multiast group

join

Added in API level 26

abstract fun join(
    group: InetAddress!, 
    interf: NetworkInterface!, 
    source: InetAddress!
): MembershipKey!

Joins a multicast group to begin receiving datagrams sent to the group from a given source address.

If this channel is currently a member of the group on the given interface to receive datagrams from the given source address then the membership key, representing that membership, is returned. Otherwise this channel joins the group and the resulting new membership key is returned. The resulting membership key is source-specific.

Membership is cumulative and this method may be invoked again with the same group and interface to allow receiving datagrams sent by other source addresses to the group.

Parameters
group	InetAddress!: The multicast address to join
interf	NetworkInterface!: The network interface on which to join the group
source	InetAddress!: The source address

Return
MembershipKey!	The membership key

Exceptions
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException	If the group parameter is not a multicast address, the source parameter is not a unicast address, the group parameter is an address type that is not supported by this channel, or the source parameter is not the same address type as the group
java.lang.IllegalStateException	If the channel is currently a member of the group on the given interface to receive all datagrams
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException	If the channel's socket is not an Internet Protocol socket, or source filtering is not supported, or the platform does not support multicasting
java.nio.channels.ClosedChannelException	If this channel is closed
java.io.IOException	If an I/O error occurs
java.lang.SecurityException	If a security manager is set, and its checkMulticast method denies access to the multiast group