This Java project demonstrates the basic usage of the UDP protocol by establishing a token ring network between multiple nodes. The ring is formed dynamically with a first node serving as the ring leader. The leader is responsible for sending the first token the moment a second node connects. Any subsequent node can join the ring by connecting to the leader or any other node that is already part of the ring. A token is forwarded by a ring node 1 second after receiving it. Every time a node receives a token, it prints a message to the console including the sequence number, the current size of the ring, and the IP addresses and port number of all nodes in the ring.
The implementation has been compiled against Java 21, although no special features are
used that would prevent it from running on older versions. The Jackson package is used
for JSON serialization and deserialization. To ease the process of running the program,
a fatjar has been created that includes all dependencies. The jar file TokenRingUDP.jar
has been added to the root of the repository.
The ring leader can be started by just running java -jar TokenRingUDP.jar. The
leader then prints its IP address and port number to the console. Any subsequent
node can join by running java -jar TokenRingUDP.jar <ip> <port> for any <ip>
and <port> of a node already part of the ring.