In my C++ application, I have to provide a low level TCP server socket. This will be used for a plain text protocol, which must be provided to end user apps. I also have a need to send and receive UDP multicast messages.

There are plenty of decent socket libraries for C++ (I'm using the old Sockets++ now), but I was wondering if it is possible (or a good idea) to use the underlying low level network connection classes in ICE.

From what I can see in the source code, there are some classes in the IceInternal namespace that may be of use.

Of course, if you call something Internal, then it sounds like you don't want applications going anywhere near it, so I guess this isn't the way to go about it.

It just seems redundant for me to use a totally different low level networking library (with potentially completely different event handling mechanism), when I know Ice must be doing the same thing under the hood.

I realise the focus of Ice is the RPC side of things, so I understand if you don't want to publish the lower layers.

At this stage, I'm trying to get a sense of the scope of Ice. Do I have any options?

Thanks,
Jeff Gray