# Network Programming and Protocols - Processes Backlog

This document contains identified processes, workflows, and methodologies specific to Network Programming and Protocols that can be implemented as Babysitter SDK orchestration processes.

## Implementation Guidelines

Each process should be implemented following the Babysitter SDK patterns:
- **Process file**: `processes/[process-name].js` or `processes/[process-name]/index.js`
- **JSDoc required**: `@process`, `@description`, `@inputs`, `@outputs`
- **Export pattern**: `export async function process(inputs, ctx) { ... }`
- **Task definitions**: Use `defineTask` from `@a5c-ai/babysitter-sdk`
- **Breakpoints**: Use `ctx.breakpoint()` for human approval gates
- **Parallel execution**: Use `ctx.parallel.all()` for independent tasks

---

## Process Categories

### Socket Programming

#### 1. TCP Socket Server Implementation
**Description**: Design and implement a high-performance TCP server with proper connection handling, error management, and graceful shutdown

**Key Activities**:
- Define server requirements (connections, throughput, latency)
- Select I/O model (blocking, non-blocking, epoll/kqueue)
- Implement socket creation, binding, and listening
- Build connection acceptance and management
- Implement read/write operations with proper buffering
- Add error handling and connection cleanup
- Implement graceful shutdown mechanism
- Add logging and monitoring

**References**:
- https://beej.us/guide/bgnet/
- https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/socket.7.html

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 2. UDP Socket Server Implementation
**Description**: Build a UDP server for datagram-based communication with packet handling and optional reliability

**Key Activities**:
- Define UDP service requirements
- Implement socket creation and binding
- Build datagram receive/send handlers
- Implement packet validation and parsing
- Add optional sequence tracking for ordering
- Implement rate limiting and flood protection
- Add multicast/broadcast support if needed
- Create test suite for packet handling

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc768

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

---

#### 3. Event-Driven Socket Handler (epoll/kqueue/IOCP)
**Description**: Implement a high-performance event-driven socket handler using platform-specific I/O multiplexing

**Key Activities**:
- Select appropriate I/O multiplexing API for platform
- Design event loop architecture
- Implement event registration and handling
- Build connection state machine
- Optimize for low latency and high throughput
- Implement timer and signal handling
- Add performance monitoring
- Conduct load testing and optimization

**References**:
- https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/epoll.7.html
- http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

---

#### 4. Connection Pool Implementation
**Description**: Build a connection pool for efficient client-side connection reuse with health checking and automatic recovery

**Key Activities**:
- Define pool configuration (min/max connections, timeouts)
- Implement connection creation and initialization
- Build connection checkout/checkin mechanism
- Add connection health checking and validation
- Implement idle connection cleanup
- Add automatic reconnection on failure
- Build metrics and monitoring
- Create comprehensive tests

**References**:
- https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.sql/javax/sql/DataSource.html

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

---

### Protocol Implementation

#### 5. Binary Protocol Parser Development
**Description**: Design and implement a robust binary protocol parser with framing, validation, and error recovery

**Key Activities**:
- Define protocol message format and framing
- Design state machine for parsing
- Implement header parsing and validation
- Build payload deserialization
- Add checksum/CRC verification
- Implement partial message handling
- Add error detection and recovery
- Create fuzz testing suite

**References**:
- https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 6. Custom Protocol Design and Implementation
**Description**: Design and implement a complete custom network protocol for specific application requirements

**Key Activities**:
- Gather protocol requirements (latency, throughput, reliability)
- Design message format and semantics
- Define framing and multiplexing strategy
- Implement handshake and connection establishment
- Build message serialization/deserialization
- Add flow control and backpressure
- Implement error handling and recovery
- Create protocol specification document
- Build comprehensive test suite

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-index.html

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

---

#### 7. Protocol State Machine Implementation
**Description**: Build a formal state machine for protocol connection lifecycle management

**Key Activities**:
- Define protocol states and transitions
- Design state machine architecture
- Implement state handlers and transitions
- Add timeout management per state
- Build event handling for state changes
- Implement error states and recovery
- Add state machine visualization
- Create tests for all state transitions

**References**:
- State machine design patterns

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

---

#### 8. Message Framing Implementation
**Description**: Implement message framing strategies for stream-based protocols (length-prefix, delimiter, fixed-length)

**Key Activities**:
- Select appropriate framing strategy
- Implement frame encoder
- Build frame decoder with partial handling
- Add buffer management optimization
- Implement frame validation
- Handle oversized messages
- Add error recovery for malformed frames
- Benchmark and optimize performance

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

---

### TLS/SSL Security

#### 9. TLS Integration for Socket Server
**Description**: Add TLS/SSL encryption to an existing socket server with proper certificate management

**Key Activities**:
- Select TLS library (OpenSSL, BoringSSL, mbed TLS)
- Generate or obtain certificates
- Implement TLS context initialization
- Add TLS handshake handling
- Wrap socket operations with TLS
- Configure cipher suites and protocols
- Implement certificate validation
- Add session resumption support
- Conduct security testing

**References**:
- https://www.openssl.org/docs/
- https://ssl-config.mozilla.org/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 10. Mutual TLS (mTLS) Implementation
**Description**: Implement mutual TLS authentication for service-to-service communication

**Key Activities**:
- Design certificate hierarchy (CA, server, client)
- Generate certificates and keys
- Implement server-side client verification
- Build client-side certificate presentation
- Configure certificate validation rules
- Implement certificate revocation checking
- Add certificate rotation support
- Create automated certificate management
- Test authentication scenarios

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8446

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 11. Certificate Management System
**Description**: Build automated certificate generation, distribution, and renewal system

**Key Activities**:
- Design certificate infrastructure
- Implement certificate generation
- Build certificate distribution mechanism
- Add automatic renewal (ACME/Let's Encrypt)
- Implement certificate rotation
- Add revocation management
- Build monitoring and alerting
- Create documentation and runbooks

**References**:
- https://letsencrypt.org/docs/
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8555

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

### HTTP Client/Server Development

#### 12. HTTP/1.1 Server Implementation
**Description**: Build a standards-compliant HTTP/1.1 server with proper request parsing and response handling

**Key Activities**:
- Implement HTTP request parser
- Build request routing mechanism
- Add response builder and serializer
- Implement keep-alive connection handling
- Add chunked transfer encoding
- Build header parsing and validation
- Implement compression (gzip, deflate)
- Add timeout handling
- Create conformance test suite

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7230

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 13. HTTP/2 Server Implementation
**Description**: Implement HTTP/2 server with multiplexing, header compression, and flow control

**Key Activities**:
- Implement HTTP/2 frame parser
- Build HPACK header compression
- Add stream multiplexing
- Implement flow control
- Build server push capability
- Add connection and stream management
- Implement graceful shutdown
- Conduct performance testing
- Add HTTP/1.1 fallback

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7540
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7541

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

---

#### 14. HTTP Client Library Development
**Description**: Build a robust HTTP client library with connection pooling, retries, and timeout handling

**Key Activities**:
- Design client API interface
- Implement connection pooling
- Build request/response handling
- Add automatic retry with backoff
- Implement timeout management
- Add redirect following
- Build cookie handling
- Implement authentication support
- Add HTTP/2 support
- Create comprehensive test suite

**References**:
- https://curl.se/docs/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 15. REST API Client Generator
**Description**: Build a code generator that creates type-safe API clients from OpenAPI specifications

**Key Activities**:
- Parse OpenAPI/Swagger specification
- Generate client code structure
- Implement request builders
- Build response parsers
- Add error handling
- Generate type definitions
- Add authentication handling
- Create usage documentation
- Support multiple languages

**References**:
- https://swagger.io/specification/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

### WebSocket Implementation

#### 16. WebSocket Server Implementation
**Description**: Build a WebSocket server supporting full RFC 6455 compliance with ping/pong and fragmentation

**Key Activities**:
- Implement HTTP upgrade handshake
- Build frame parser and encoder
- Add ping/pong handling
- Implement message fragmentation
- Build connection state management
- Add close handshake handling
- Implement per-message compression
- Add broadcast capability
- Create conformance test suite

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6455

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 17. WebSocket Client Library
**Description**: Implement a WebSocket client library with automatic reconnection and message queuing

**Key Activities**:
- Implement connection establishment
- Build frame encoding/decoding
- Add automatic reconnection
- Implement message queuing during reconnect
- Add ping/pong handling
- Build event-based API
- Add compression support
- Implement connection timeout handling
- Create usage examples

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

---

#### 18. Real-Time Messaging System
**Description**: Build a scalable real-time messaging system using WebSocket with pub/sub patterns

**Key Activities**:
- Design message protocol
- Implement pub/sub mechanism
- Build room/channel management
- Add presence tracking
- Implement message persistence
- Build horizontal scaling support
- Add authentication and authorization
- Implement rate limiting
- Create client SDK

**References**:
- https://socket.io/docs/

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

---

### Network Packet Analysis

#### 19. Packet Capture and Analysis Tool
**Description**: Build a network packet capture and analysis tool for debugging protocol implementations

**Key Activities**:
- Implement packet capture (libpcap)
- Build packet decoder for common protocols
- Add filtering capabilities (BPF)
- Implement packet display formatting
- Build statistics collection
- Add pcap file export
- Implement protocol dissection
- Create visualization for packet flow
- Add search and filter functionality

**References**:
- https://www.tcpdump.org/
- https://www.wireshark.org/docs/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

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#### 20. Protocol Dissector Development
**Description**: Create custom protocol dissectors for Wireshark or standalone analysis tools

**Key Activities**:
- Define protocol structure
- Implement field parsing
- Build display formatting
- Add field validation
- Implement sub-dissector support
- Create protocol documentation
- Add test capture files
- Build dissector registration
- Create installation guide

**References**:
- https://wiki.wireshark.org/Lua/Dissectors

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

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#### 21. Network Traffic Analyzer
**Description**: Build a network traffic analyzer for performance monitoring and troubleshooting

**Key Activities**:
- Implement traffic capture
- Build flow tracking
- Add protocol identification
- Implement bandwidth calculation
- Build latency measurement
- Add connection tracking
- Create traffic reports
- Implement alerting for anomalies
- Add export capabilities

**Estimated Complexity**: High

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### Load Balancer Development

#### 22. Layer 4 Load Balancer Implementation
**Description**: Build a TCP/UDP load balancer with health checking and multiple balancing algorithms

**Key Activities**:
- Implement connection proxying
- Build backend server pool management
- Add health checking mechanism
- Implement load balancing algorithms (round-robin, least-conn)
- Add session persistence (sticky sessions)
- Implement connection draining
- Build statistics and monitoring
- Add configuration management
- Create failover handling

**References**:
- https://www.haproxy.org/

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

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#### 23. Layer 7 Load Balancer (HTTP)
**Description**: Implement an HTTP-aware load balancer with path-based routing and header manipulation

**Key Activities**:
- Implement HTTP request parsing
- Build routing rules engine
- Add path-based routing
- Implement header-based routing
- Add request/response modification
- Build caching support
- Implement rate limiting
- Add SSL termination
- Create dashboard and metrics

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

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#### 24. Health Check System
**Description**: Build a comprehensive health check system for backend service monitoring

**Key Activities**:
- Design health check protocol
- Implement TCP connect checks
- Add HTTP health checks
- Build custom probe support
- Implement check scheduling
- Add failure detection logic
- Build alerting integration
- Create health status API
- Implement graceful degradation

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

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### Proxy Server Implementation

#### 25. HTTP Proxy Server
**Description**: Build a forward/reverse HTTP proxy server with caching and access control

**Key Activities**:
- Implement request interception
- Build upstream connection handling
- Add caching mechanism
- Implement access control
- Add request/response logging
- Build header manipulation
- Implement connection pooling
- Add HTTPS support (CONNECT)
- Create configuration management

**Estimated Complexity**: High

---

#### 26. SOCKS5 Proxy Implementation
**Description**: Implement a SOCKS5 proxy server for TCP and UDP relay

**Key Activities**:
- Implement SOCKS5 handshake
- Build authentication methods
- Add TCP connect command
- Implement UDP associate command
- Build address resolution
- Add access control
- Implement logging
- Create connection tracking
- Add performance monitoring

**References**:
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1928

**Estimated Complexity**: Medium

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#### 27. Transparent Proxy Implementation
**Description**: Build a transparent proxy that intercepts traffic without client configuration

**Key Activities**:
- Implement NAT/iptables integration
- Build connection interception
- Add destination detection
- Implement traffic forwarding
- Build protocol detection
- Add logging and monitoring
- Implement access policies
- Create administration interface

**Estimated Complexity**: High

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### Network Testing and Debugging

#### 28. Network Testing Framework
**Description**: Build a comprehensive network testing framework for protocol and server testing

**Key Activities**:
- Design test case structure
- Implement connection testing
- Build protocol validation tests
- Add performance benchmarking
- Implement chaos testing (packet loss, latency)
- Build test reporting
- Add CI/CD integration
- Create test case library
- Implement parallel test execution

**References**:
- https://iperf.fr/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

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#### 29. Load Testing Tool
**Description**: Build a network load testing tool for stress testing servers and protocols

**Key Activities**:
- Design workload configuration
- Implement concurrent connection generator
- Build request pattern simulation
- Add metrics collection (latency, throughput)
- Implement ramp-up/ramp-down
- Build result analysis
- Add reporting and visualization
- Create distributed testing support
- Implement scenario scripting

**References**:
- https://github.com/wg/wrk
- https://k6.io/

**Estimated Complexity**: High

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#### 30. Protocol Fuzzer
**Description**: Build a protocol fuzzing tool for security and robustness testing

**Key Activities**:
- Design mutation strategies
- Implement protocol template system
- Build fuzzing engine
- Add crash detection
- Implement coverage tracking
- Build corpus management
- Add reproducer generation
- Create reporting system
- Implement distributed fuzzing

**References**:
- https://github.com/google/AFL

**Estimated Complexity**: Very High

---

## Implementation Priority

### Phase 1: Foundation (High Priority)
1. TCP Socket Server Implementation
2. Binary Protocol Parser Development
3. TLS Integration for Socket Server
4. HTTP/1.1 Server Implementation
5. WebSocket Server Implementation

### Phase 2: Advanced (Medium Priority)
6. Event-Driven Socket Handler (epoll/kqueue/IOCP)
7. Custom Protocol Design and Implementation
8. HTTP Client Library Development
9. Mutual TLS (mTLS) Implementation
10. Layer 4 Load Balancer Implementation

### Phase 3: Optimization (Lower Priority)
11. Connection Pool Implementation
12. HTTP/2 Server Implementation
13. Network Testing Framework
14. Load Testing Tool
15. Packet Capture and Analysis Tool

### Phase 4: Specialized (As Needed)
16. UDP Socket Server Implementation
17. Real-Time Messaging System
18. HTTP Proxy Server
19. Protocol Fuzzer
20. REST API Client Generator

---

## Process Patterns

### Common Task Types
- **Research/Discovery**: Gather requirements, analyze protocols, evaluate libraries
- **Design**: Protocol specification, architecture decisions, API design
- **Implementation**: Build, integrate, optimize
- **Testing**: Unit tests, integration tests, load tests, security tests
- **Documentation**: Protocol specs, API docs, implementation guides
- **Review**: Code review, security audit, performance analysis
- **Measurement**: Benchmarking, profiling, metrics collection

### Common Breakpoints (Human Approval Gates)
- Protocol specification review before implementation
- Security review for TLS/authentication implementations
- Architecture review for distributed components
- Performance review before production deployment
- API design review before client implementation

### Parallel Execution Opportunities
- Multiple protocol implementations (client/server)
- Cross-platform socket implementations
- Independent test suites (unit, integration, load)
- Multiple serialization format implementations
- Concurrent client/server development

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**Created**: 2026-01-24
**Version**: 1.0.0
**Status**: Phase 2 - Processes Identified
**Next Step**: Phase 3 - Implement process JavaScript files
