What TCP protocols are usable for client to client communication?

Question

Manytimes clients ask for features like instant messaging (IM) and other client-to-client (P2P) communication for their web apps. Typically how is this done in normal web browsers? For example I've seen demos of Google Wave (and Gmail) that are able to IM from a regular browser. Is this via HTTP? Or does XmlHttpRequest (AJAX) provide the necessary backend for such communication?

More than anything I wonder how can a server "wake up" the remote client, lets say for sending an IM? Or does the client have to keep "polling" the message server for new IMs?

Answer 1

Typically the browser will poll the server for new messages. One approach that is often done to make this more efficient is the 'long poll' (see also this link) - the server responds immediately if it has anything; otherwise, it waits, keeping the connection open for a while. If a message comes in, it immediately wakes up and sends it, otherwise it comes back with a 'nope, check back' after a few tens of seconds. The client them immediately redials to go back into the long-polling state.