stream socket/data gram socket vs raw socket:

1. stream socket/data gram socket vs raw socket:

 * A raw socket is used to receive raw packets. This means packets received at the Ethernet layer will directly pass to the raw socket. Stating it precisely, a raw socket bypasses the normal TCP/IP processing and sends the packets to the specific user application (see Figure 1)

* Other sockets like stream sockets and data gram sockets receive data from the transport layer that contains no headers but only the payload. This means that there is no information about the source IP address and MAC address. If applications running on the same machine or on different machines are communicating, then they are only exchanging data.

* The purpose of a raw socket is absolutely different. A raw socket allows an application to directly access lower level protocols, which means a raw socket receives un-extracted packets (see Figure 2). There is no need to provide the port and IP address to a raw socket, unlike in the case of stream and datagram sockets.

• Stream Sockets − Delivery in a networked environment is guaranteed. If you send through the stream socket three items "A, B, C", they will arrive in the same order − "A, B, C". These sockets use TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) for data transmission. If delivery is impossible, the sender receives an error indicator. Data records do not have any boundaries.
• Datagram Sockets − Delivery in a networked environment is not guaranteed. They're connectionless because you don't need to have an open connection as in Stream Sockets − you build a packet with the destination information and send it out. They use UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

source: http://opensourceforu.com/2015/03/a-guide-to-using-raw-sockets/

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix_sockets/what_is_socket.htm