Winsock Service Provider Interface (SPI)

A version of this page is also available for

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3

4/8/2010

Following the Windows Open System Architecture (WOSA) model, Winsock defines a standard service provider interface (SPI) between the Winsock application programming interface (API) and the protocol stacks. Windows Sockets 2.2 support is not limited to TCP/IP protocol stacks as is the case for Windows Sockets 1.1.

The following table shows the built-in service providers that Windows Mobile operating systems (OS) provide:

Service provider Description

WSPM

This is the default base TCP and UDP transport service provider. WSPM does not support all possible functionality, including multipoint and connect-time data transfer. WSPM is located in wspm.dll.

NSPM

This is the default Domain Name Service (DNS) namespace provider. NSPM is located in nspm.dll.

Together, these two providers offer most of the functionality available through Winsock 1.1, as well as some of the functionality of Winsock 2.2, such as scatter/gather and overlapped I/O.

Windows Mobile also provides a third service provider, located in ssllsp.dll, that is built in if SSL is included in your OS design. You can also create your own service providers. Preferably, you should document service providers that you create so that other application developers can make use of the extended abilities.

In This Section

Service Provider Activation

Winsock and WOSA

Error Reporting and Parameter Validation

Byte Ordering Assumptions

Socket Creation and Descriptor Management

Event Objects in the Winsock SPI

Notification of Network Events

Socket Connections on Connection-Oriented Protocols

Socket Connections on Connectionless Protocols

Socket I/O

Shared Sockets in the SPI

Protocol-Independent Multicast and Multipoint in the SPI

Socket Options and IOCTLs

Summary of SPI Functions

Name Resolution Service Provider Requirements

Namespace Provider Installation

See Also

Other Resources

Windows Sockets