The new channel is created by invoking the openDatagramChannel method of the system-wide default SelectorProvider object. The channel will not be connected.

The ProtocolFamily of the channel's socket is platform (and possibly configuration) dependent and therefore unspecified. The open allows the protocol family to be selected when opening a datagram channel, and should be used to open datagram channels that are intended for Internet Protocol multicasting.

The family parameter is used to specify the ProtocolFamily. If the datagram channel is to be used for IP multicasting then this should correspond to the address type of the multicast groups that this channel will join.

The new channel is created by invoking the openDatagramChannel method of the system-wide default SelectorProvider object. The channel will not be connected.

Datagram channels support reading and writing, so this method returns (SelectionKey.OP_READ | SelectionKey.OP_WRITE).

This method is used to establish an association between the socket and a local address. Once an association is established then the socket remains bound until the channel is closed. If the local parameter has the value null then the socket will be bound to an address that is assigned automatically.

The channel's socket is configured so that it only receives datagrams from, and sends datagrams to, the given remote peer address. Once connected, datagrams may not be received from or sent to any other address. Datagrams in the channel's socket receive buffer, which have not been received before invoking this method, may be discarded. The channel's socket remains connected until it is explicitly disconnected or until it is closed.

This method performs exactly the same security checks as the connect method of the DatagramSocket class. That is, if a security manager has been installed then this method verifies that its checkAccept and checkConnect methods permit datagrams to be received from and sent to, respectively, the given remote address. Once connected, no further security checks are performed for datagrams received from, or sent to, the given remote address. Care should be taken to ensure that a connected datagram channel is not shared with untrusted code.

This method may be invoked at any time. If another thread has already initiated a read or write operation upon this channel, then an invocation of this method will block until any such operation is complete. If this channel's socket is not bound then this method will first cause the socket to be bound to an address that is assigned automatically, as if invoking the bind method with a parameter of null.

The channel's socket is configured so that it can receive datagrams from, and sends datagrams to, any remote address so long as the security manager, if installed, permits it.

This method may be invoked at any time. If another thread has already initiated a read or write operation upon this channel, then an invocation of this method will block until any such operation is complete.

If this channel's socket is not connected, or if the channel is closed, then invoking this method has no effect.

If a datagram is immediately available, or if this channel is in blocking mode and one eventually becomes available, then the datagram is copied into the given byte buffer and its source address is returned. If this channel is in non-blocking mode and a datagram is not immediately available then this method immediately returns null.

The datagram is transferred into the given byte buffer starting at its current position, as if by a regular read operation. If there are fewer bytes remaining in the buffer than are required to hold the datagram then the remainder of the datagram is silently discarded.

This method performs exactly the same security checks as the receive method of the DatagramSocket class. That is, if the socket is not connected to a specific remote address and a security manager has been installed then for each datagram received this method verifies that the source's address and port number are permitted by the security manager's checkAccept method. Datagrams that are not permitted by the security manager are silently discarded. The overhead of this security check can be avoided by first connecting the socket via the connect method.

This method may be invoked at any time. If another thread has already initiated a read operation upon this channel, however, then an invocation of this method will block until the first operation is complete. If this channel's socket is not bound then this method will first cause the socket to be bound to an address that is assigned automatically, as if invoking the bind method with a parameter of null.

If this channel is in non-blocking mode and there is sufficient room in the underlying output buffer, or if this channel is in blocking mode and sufficient room becomes available, then the remaining bytes in the given buffer are transmitted as a single datagram to the given target address.

The datagram is transferred from the byte buffer as if by a regular write operation.

This method performs exactly the same security checks as the send method of the DatagramSocket class. That is, if the socket is not connected to a specific remote address and a security manager has been installed then for each datagram sent this method verifies that the target address and port number are permitted by the security manager's checkConnect method. The overhead of this security check can be avoided by first connecting the socket via the connect method.

This method may be invoked at any time. If another thread has already initiated a write operation upon this channel, however, then an invocation of this method will block until the first operation is complete. If this channel's socket is not bound then this method will first cause the socket to be bound to an address that is assigned automatically, as if by invoking the bind method with a parameter of null.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, and it only accepts datagrams from the socket's peer. If there are more bytes in the datagram than remain in the given buffer then the remainder of the datagram is silently discarded. Otherwise this method behaves exactly as specified in the ReadableByteChannel interface.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, and it only accepts datagrams from the socket's peer. If there are more bytes in the datagram than remain in the given buffers then the remainder of the datagram is silently discarded. Otherwise this method behaves exactly as specified in the ScatteringByteChannel interface.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, and it only accepts datagrams from the socket's peer. If there are more bytes in the datagram than remain in the given buffers then the remainder of the datagram is silently discarded. Otherwise this method behaves exactly as specified in the ScatteringByteChannel interface.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, in which case it sends datagrams directly to the socket's peer. Otherwise it behaves exactly as specified in the WritableByteChannel interface.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, in which case it sends datagrams directly to the socket's peer. Otherwise it behaves exactly as specified in the GatheringByteChannel interface.

This method may only be invoked if this channel's socket is connected, in which case it sends datagrams directly to the socket's peer. Otherwise it behaves exactly as specified in the GatheringByteChannel interface.

Where the channel is bound to an Internet Protocol socket address then the return value from this method is of type InetSocketAddress.

If there is a security manager set, its checkConnect method is called with the local address and -1 as its arguments to see if the operation is allowed. If the operation is not allowed, a SocketAddress representing the loopback address and the local port of the channel's socket is returned.