internet-engineering-project/presentation.md

Presentation: Simple WebSocket Chatroom

Slide 1 - Project Title

Simple WebSocket Chatroom

A university Internet Engineering project that demonstrates real-time communication with FastAPI, WebSocket, and a Persian browser UI.

Slide 2 - Why WebSocket Exists

Early web pages mostly used the HTTP request/response model. The browser asked for a document, the server returned it, and the connection finished.

When web applications started needing live updates, developers used techniques such as polling and long polling. These methods worked, but they repeated HTTP requests many times and created unnecessary overhead.

WebSocket was introduced to give web applications one persistent connection that can carry messages in both directions.

Slide 3 - Short History

• Classic HTTP: good for documents and forms, but not designed for instant server push.
• AJAX and polling: allowed background requests, but the browser still had to keep asking the server for updates.
• Long polling: reduced useless requests, but each update still involved HTTP request handling.
• WebSocket standardization: RFC 6455 defined WebSocket as a standard protocol for full-duplex browser/server communication.
• Modern usage: chat apps, games, live dashboards, collaborative editors, notifications, and IoT control panels.

Slide 4 - How WebSocket Starts on HTTP

WebSocket does not begin as a completely separate browser mechanism. It starts with an HTTP request that asks the server to upgrade the connection.

The browser sends an HTTP GET request with headers such as:

Connection: Upgrade
Upgrade: websocket
Sec-WebSocket-Key: ...

If the server accepts the upgrade, it responds with:

101 Switching Protocols

After that response, the same TCP connection is no longer used as normal HTTP. It carries WebSocket frames.

Slide 5 - After the Upgrade

Once the connection is upgraded:

• The browser can send messages to the server at any time.
• The server can send messages to the browser at any time.
• Both sides keep the same connection open.
• Data is sent as WebSocket frames instead of repeated HTTP requests.

This is why WebSocket is called full-duplex communication.

Slide 6 - WebSocket in the OSI Model

WebSocket is usually discussed at the application layer because application code decides what messages mean.

In a typical browser/server setup:

• WebSocket is used by the application.
• The opening handshake uses HTTP semantics.
• The reliable transport is TCP.
• IP routes packets between machines.
• Ethernet or Wi-Fi carries the actual signals.

Slide 7 - Network View

The stack can be simplified like this:

Chat message JSON
WebSocket frame
TCP segment
IP packet
Network frame
Physical signal

The chatroom code mostly works at the top of this stack. It creates JSON messages, sends them through a WebSocket, and lets the operating system and network layers handle delivery.

Slide 8 - Project Architecture

This project has three main parts:

• Browser UI: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• WebSocket endpoint: FastAPI route at /ws/{room_id}/{client_id}.
• Connection manager: stores active sockets grouped by room.

When a user sends a message, the server receives it from one socket and broadcasts it to all sockets in the same room.

Slide 9 - Message Flow in This Project

1. User enters a name and room.
2. JavaScript creates a WebSocket object.
3. Browser sends the HTTP upgrade request.
4. FastAPI accepts the WebSocket connection.
5. The connection manager stores the user in the selected room.
6. A message is sent as JSON from browser to server.
7. The server broadcasts the message to everyone in that room.
8. Browsers render the received message without page refresh.

Slide 10 - Pros and Cons

WebSocket is useful, but it is not the correct choice for every web page.

Slide 11 - Advantages

• Low latency because the connection stays open.
• Server can push data immediately.
• Good fit for chat, notifications, collaborative tools, games, and live dashboards.
• Less repeated HTTP header overhead after the initial upgrade.
• Simple programming model for continuous two-way messaging.

Slide 12 - Disadvantages

• Long-lived connections consume server resources.
• Scaling across multiple servers needs extra design, such as Redis Pub/Sub or a message broker.
• Disconnections, reconnects, and network failures must be handled carefully.
• Some proxies and firewalls may need correct WebSocket support.
• It is unnecessary for simple pages that only need normal request/response behavior.

Slide 13 - Why This Project Is Kept Simple

This project intentionally avoids accounts, databases, authentication, message history, and deployment complexity.

The goal is to make the WebSocket behavior easy to see:

• open connection
• join room
• send message
• broadcast message
• close connection

That makes it suitable for a classroom demonstration.

Slide 14 - Demo Plan

1. Run the server with uvicorn app.main:app --reload.
2. Open the app in two browser tabs.
3. Enter two different names.
4. Join the same room.
5. Send a message from one tab.
6. Show that the second tab receives it instantly.
7. Disconnect one user and show the online users list updating.

Slide 15 - Conclusion

WebSocket solves the real-time web communication problem by upgrading an HTTP connection into a persistent, full-duplex channel.

In this chatroom project, that concept is demonstrated with a small FastAPI backend and a simple Persian browser interface.