This document provides an overview of socket programming in Java. It discusses how client-server applications use sockets to communicate over a network. Sockets are identified by an IP address and port number. The document explains TCP and UDP socket programming in Java. For TCP, it describes how the server creates a welcoming socket to accept client connections. For both TCP and UDP, it outlines the basic interactions between client and server sockets. The document concludes by noting that socket programming is easy in Java and real-time applications typically use threads to handle each socket.