Legacy Document

Inside Macintosh: Networking With Open Transport / Part 2 - Open Transport Reference

Chapter 22 - Endpoints Reference / Functions

Binding and Unbinding Endpoints

Binding an endpoint is the process of assigning an address to it. An address is the value by which a provider's highest-layer protocol module identifies the endpoint. For example, in AppleTalk, the protocol address of an ADSP endpoint is its network ID, node ID, and DDP socket number; in TCP/IP, the protocol address of a UDP endpoint is its port number and IP address. An endpoint must have a protocol address to transfer information.

You assign an address to an endpoint by calling the OTBind function. After binding, connectionless endpoints can send and receive data; connection-oriented endpoints can send and receive connection requests.

An endpoint can be bound to only one address at a time. If you no longer need to use an endpoint or if you want to change its address, you can unbind the endpoint using the OTUnbind function. In this case, Open Transport dissociates the endpoint from the address assigned to it. After the endpoint is unbound, you can close the endpoint using the OTCloseProvider function, or you can bind the endpoint to another address by using the OTBind function.