Introduction

Netty is a non-blocking I/O client-server framework for the development of Java network applications such as protocol servers and clients. Netty includes an implementation of the reactor pattern of programming. Originally developed by JBoss, Netty is now developed and maintained by the Netty Project Community.

Besides being an asynchronous network application framework, Netty also includes built-in HTTP, HTTP2, DNS and more protocols support, including the ability to run inside a servlet container, support for WebSockets, integration with Google Protocol Buffers, SSL/TLS support, support for SPDY protocol and support for message compression. Netty has been actively developed since 2004.

Beginning with the version 4.0.0, Netty also supports the usage of NIO.2 as a backend, along with NIO and blocking Java sockets.