Building communication systems from raw TCP sockets to real-time distributed architectures.
CommStack is a step-by-step systems engineering journey focused on understanding how machines communicate underneath frameworks and APIs.
This repository is not about using abstractions blindly.
It is about understanding:
- what happens before Flask/FastAPI
- how TCP connections work
- how HTTP is built
- why WebSockets exist
- how protocols are designed
- how real-time systems communicate
The goal is to learn networking and communication systems from the ground up by building every layer manually.
Modern developers often use:
- APIs
- frameworks
- WebSockets
- cloud systems
without understanding the layers beneath them.
CommStack exists to explore:
- transport systems
- protocol design
- socket communication
- request/response architecture
- persistent communication
- distributed communication systems
step by step.
This repository is designed as a long-term systems laboratory.
Instead of starting with frameworks:
from fastapi import FastAPI
Roadmap
Level 00 — Raw TCP
Learn:
sockets
bind
listen
accept
send
recv
connection lifecycle
Goal:
Build first client-server communication using raw TCP.
Level 01 — Multi Client Systems
Learn:
handling multiple clients
threads
concurrency
connection management
Goal:
Build a server capable of serving many clients simultaneously.
Level 02 — Custom Protocol Design
Learn:
protocol structure
message framing
delimiters
packet formats
Goal:
Design and implement a custom communication protocol.
Level 03 — HTTP From Scratch
Learn:
HTTP request parsing
headers
methods
status codes
request-response lifecycle
Goal:
Build a minimal HTTP server without frameworks.
Level 04 — WebSocket Core
Learn:
handshake process
persistent connections
frames
bidirectional communication
Goal:
Understand how real-time systems work internally.
Level 05 — Binary Communication
Learn:
byte streams
struct packing
binary protocols
low-level communication
Goal:
Build efficient machine-level communication systems.
Level 06 — Async Networking
Learn:
asyncio
event loops
non-blocking sockets
scalable servers
Goal:
Build high-concurrency communication systems.
Level 07 — Distributed Nodes
Learn:
node communication
distributed architecture
synchronization
service interaction
Goal:
Build machine-to-machine communication systems.
Level 08 — Real-Time Systems
Learn:
event streaming
live synchronization
sensor communication
real-time orchestration
Goal:
Build foundations for robotics and intelligent distributed systems.
repo stucture
commstack/
│
├── level_00_raw_tcp/
│
├── level_01_multi_client/
│
├── level_02_custom_protocol/
│
├── level_03_http_from_scratch/
│
├── level_04_websocket_core/
│
├── level_05_binary_protocols/
│
├── level_06_async_networking/
│
├── level_07_distributed_nodes/
│
├── level_08_realtime_systems/
│
└── notes/