Java socket time out does not work

Question

I've a class which is responsible for listening two other machines which have exactly the same classes, so it's a network of three computers having the same code. The connection is there and I can see them passing data to each other. Everything until there works OK.

Things get tricky when I take out one of the machines and observe how the other two behave. Expectedly, when one of the machines stops working for some reason, other two should continue. And if two of them stop, the remaining should go on.

I tried to implement this mechanism below. However, when I take out one of the machines, the program keeps waiting, so it does not switch to "two-way comparison mode".

public void listen() {
    try {
    logger.info("Creating listener sockets");

    while (isRunning) {
        final byte[] buf = new byte[bufferSize];

        final DatagramPacket packetOne = new DatagramPacket(buf, buf.length);
        final DatagramPacket packetTwo = new DatagramPacket(buf, buf.length);
        MediatorMessageMsg mediatorMessageOne = null;
        MediatorMessageMsg mediatorMessageTwo = null;

        try {
            socketReceiverOne.receive(packetOne);
            ByteArrayInputStream firstInput = new ByteArrayInputStream(buf);
            mediatorMessageOne = MediatorMessageMsg.parseDelimitedFrom(firstInput);

            socketReceiverTwo.receive(packetTwo);
            ByteArrayInputStream secondInput = new ByteArrayInputStream(buf);
            mediatorMessageTwo = MediatorMessageMsg.parseDelimitedFrom(secondInput);

            logger.trace("Received packets");
        } catch (final SocketTimeoutException e) {
            logger.trace(e.getMessage());
            continue;
        } catch (final SocketException e) {
            logger.warn(e);
            logger.warn("Ignore the error and go on.");
            continue;
        } catch (final IOException e) {
            logger.error("Incoming communication stopped!");
            logger.error(e);
            stop();
        }

        // if two mediators sent the data, it's OK
        if (packetOne.getLength() > 0 && packetTwo.getLength() > 0) {
            handlePackets(mediatorMessageOne, mediatorMessageTwo);
            logger.info("Number of active mediators: 2. Comparison style: 1v1v1");
        }
        // if only one sent the data, compare it with our own
        else if (packetOne.getLength() > 0 || packetTwo.getLength() > 0) {
            // whicehever sent the data, compare its data with our own
            logger.info("Number of active mediators: 1. Comparison style: 1v1");
            if (packetOne.getLength() > 0) {
                handlePackets(mediatorMessageOne);
            } else {
                handlePackets(mediatorMessageTwo);
            }

        }
        // if no data is sent, then pass our own directly
        else {
            logger.info("Number of active mediators: 0. Comparison style: No Comparison");
            // our datamodel to retrieve data on our own
            DataModel modelOwn = DataModel.getInstance();
            MediatorMessageMsg newMessage = MediatorMessageMsg.newBuilder().setHeading(modelOwn.getHeading()).setSpeed(modelOwn.getSpeed()).setSender(getId()).build();
            // publish(topicName, newMessage);
        }

        Thread.sleep(1);
    }

    socketReceiverOne.close();
    socketReceiverTwo.close();
    logger.info("stopped");

} catch (final IllegalArgumentException e) {
    logger.error("Illegal argument received: " + e);
} catch (final Exception e) {
    logger.error("Unexpected error occured: " + e);
} finally {
    if (socketReceiverOne instanceof DatagramSocket && socketReceiverTwo instanceof DatagramSocket) {
        if (!socketReceiverOne.isClosed() || !socketReceiverTwo.isClosed()) {
            socketReceiverOne.close();
            socketReceiverTwo.close();
        }
    }
}

}

To save your time, let me share my opinion on the matter. I suspect the problem to be in this part:

            socketReceiverOne.receive(packetOne);
            ByteArrayInputStream firstInput = new ByteArrayInputStream(buf);
            mediatorMessageOne = MediatorMessageMsg.parseDelimitedFrom(firstInput);

            socketReceiverTwo.receive(packetTwo);
            ByteArrayInputStream secondInput = new ByteArrayInputStream(buf);
            mediatorMessageTwo = MediatorMessageMsg.parseDelimitedFrom(secondInput);

To me it seems like the program expects a package and when it cannot receive it, it keeps waiting. Although I have time out exception condition, I cannot get this done.

private int socketTimeout = 1000 * 2;// 2sec
socketReceiverOne.setSoTimeout(socketTimeout);
socketReceiverTwo.setSoTimeout(socketTimeout);

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Okay I found where I was mistaken. I needed more ports (for in and out). Once I incorporated those ports, the problem did not occur again.