7.5. Networking (MINA component)

So far in this chapter, you’ve seen a mixture of old integration techniques, such as file-based integration, and newer technologies like JMS and web services. All of these can be considered essential in any integration framework. Another essential mode of integration is using low-level networking protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Even if you haven’t heard of these protocols before, you’ve definitely used them—protocols like email, FTP, and HTTP run on top of TCP.

To communicate over these and other protocols, Camel uses Apache MINA and Netty. Both MINA and Netty are networking frameworks that provide asynchronous event-driven APIs and communicate over various protocols like TCP and UDP. In this section, we’ll be using MINA to demonstrate low-level network communication with Camel. For more information on using Netty with Camel, see the camel-netty component’s documentation (http://camel.apache.org/netty.html).