Difference between tcpclient and tcpip?

Hi folks,

What is the difference between tcpclient provided by the standard Matlab and tpcip provided by the Intrument control toolbox? I don't have that toolbox and want to communicate with a device over tcp (sending commands and recieving measurement values). I'm still not aware of the difference of both functions.

Regards, Christian

Answer 1

[srj4anoop]

Hi Christian,

With the tcpclient() function you can only create a TCP/IP client object. The syntax of using tcpclient() is as shown below :

 >> tclient = tcpclient('Address',Port,'Timeout',<timeout_value>)

where the Timeout property specifies the waiting time to complete read and write operations in seconds, and the default is 10.

Whereas the tcpip() function lets you create a TCP/IP object that can be configured to work as a Server or as a Client using its NetworkRole property.

For example, to create a TCP/IP server object:

tcpipServer = tcpip('0.0.0.0',55000,'NetworkRole','Server');

and to create a TCP/IP client interface for the server socket:

tcpipClient = tcpip('127.0.0.1',55000,'NetworkRole','Client')

You can refer to the following blog to undertsand more about this function:

Transferring Data Between Two Computers Using MATLAB

Answer 2

[RST]

In addition to the above it appears that:

tcpip

• acts as a MATLAB fileID (similar to a C-language FILE*), so supports fread(), fgets(), fwrite(), fprintf(), etc
• has a long (20 second?) connection timeout, that can not be changed. Please fix this, Mathworks!

tcpclient

• acts more like a C-language integer file descriptor. In versions earlier than R2020b it only supports the low-level read() and write() functions. R2020b introduced: configureTerminator(), readline(), writeline() and configureCallback().
• supports ConnectTimeout as an optional argument in the constructor

If at first you don't succeed: cheat. A work-around for the tcpip connection timeout issue is to attempt to make a tcpclient connection. If that fails then throw an error, otherwise delete the tcpclient and make a tcpip.

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

You might also be interested in the File Exchange contribution "tcpudpip"

Answer 4

[Dev-iL]

• tcpip can act both as a client and a server, requires the Instrument Control Toolbox and was last modified in R2011a.
• tcpclient can only act as a client, doesn't require additional toolboxes (as far as I can tell) and was introduced later, that is in R2014b.