.NET Asynchronous stream read/write

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I have been trying to solve this "Concurrent Programming" exam exercise (in C#):

Knowing that Stream class contains int Read(byte[] buffer, int offset, int size) and void Write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int size) methods, implement in C# the NetToFile method that copies all data received from NetworkStream net instance to the FileStream file instance. To do the transfer, use asynchronous reads and synchronous writes, avoiding one thread to be blocked during read operations. The transfer ends when the net read operation returns value 0. To simplify, it is not necessary to support controlled cancel of the operation.

void NetToFile(NetworkStream net, FileStream file);

I've been trying to solve this exercise, but I'm struggling with a question related with the question itself. But first, here is my code:

public static void NetToFile(NetworkStream net, FileStream file) {
    byte[] buffer = new byte[4096]; // buffer with 4 kB dimension
    int offset = 0; // read/write offset
    int nBytesRead = 0; // number of bytes read on each cycle

    IAsyncResult ar;
    do {
        // read partial content of net (asynchronously)
        ar = net.BeginRead(buffer,offset,buffer.Length,null,null);
        // wait until read is completed
        ar.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne();
        // get number of bytes read on each cycle
        nBytesRead = net.EndRead(ar);

        // write partial content to file (synchronously)
        fs.Write(buffer,offset,nBytesRead);
        // update offset
        offset += nBytesRead;
    }
    while( nBytesRead > 0);
}

The question I have is that, in the question statement, is said:

To do the transfer, use asynchronous reads and synchronous writes, avoiding one thread to be blocked during read operations

I'm not really sure if my solution accomplishes what is wanted in this exercise, because I'm using AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne() to wait until the asynchronous read completes.

On the other side, I'm not really figuring out what is meant to be a "non-blocking" solution in this scenario, as the FileStream write is meant to be made synchronously... and to do that, I have to wait until NetworkStream read completes to proceed with the FileStream writing, isn't it?

Can you, please, help me out with this?

[ EDIT 1 ] Using callback solution

Ok, if I understood what Mitchel Sellers and willvv replied, I've been counseled to use a callback method to turn this into a "non-blocking" solution. Here is my code, then:

byte[] buffer; // buffer

public static void NetToFile(NetworkStream net, FileStream file) {
    // buffer with same dimension as file stream data
    buffer = new byte[file.Length];
    //start asynchronous read
    net.BeginRead(buffer,0,buffer.Length,OnEndRead,net);
}

//asynchronous callback
static void OnEndRead(IAsyncResult ar) {
    //NetworkStream retrieve
    NetworkStream net = (NetworkStream) ar.IAsyncState;
    //get number of bytes read
    int nBytesRead = net.EndRead(ar);

    //write content to file
    //... and now, how do I write to FileStream instance without
    //having its reference??
    //fs.Write(buffer,0,nBytesRead);
}

As you may have noticed, I'm stuck on the callback method, as I don't have a reference to the FileStream instance where I want to invoke the "Write(...)" method.

Additionally, this is not a thread-safe solution, as the byte[] field is exposed and may be shared among concurrent NetToFile invocations. I don't know how to solve this problem without exposing this byte[] field in the outer-scope... and I'm almost sure it may not be exposed this way.

I don't want to use a lambda or anonymous method solution, because that's not in the curriculum of "Concurrent Programing" course.

concurrency asynchronous .net c#
6 Answers

Wow, these are all very complex! Here's my async solution, and it's just one function. The Read() and BeginWrite() both run at the same time.

/// <summary>
/// Copies a stream.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="source">The stream containing the source data.</param>
/// <param name="target">The stream that will receive the source data.</param>
/// <remarks>
/// This function copies until no more can be read from the stream
///  and does not close the stream when done.<br/>
/// Read and write are performed simultaneously to improve throughput.<br/>
/// If no data can be read for 60 seconds, the copy will time-out.
/// </remarks>
public static void CopyStream(Stream source, Stream target)
{
    // This stream copy supports a source-read happening at the same time
    // as target-write.  A simpler implementation would be to use just
    // Write() instead of BeginWrite(), at the cost of speed.

    byte[] readbuffer = new byte[4096];
    byte[] writebuffer = new byte[4096];
    IAsyncResult asyncResult = null;

    for (; ; )
    {
        // Read data into the readbuffer.  The previous call to BeginWrite, if any,
        //  is executing in the background..
        int read = source.Read(readbuffer, 0, readbuffer.Length);

        // Ok, we have read some data and we're ready to write it, so wait here
        //  to make sure that the previous write is done before we write again.
        if (asyncResult != null)
        {
            // This should work down to ~0.01kb/sec
            asyncResult.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(60000);
            target.EndWrite(asyncResult); // Last step to the 'write'.
            if (!asyncResult.IsCompleted) // Make sure the write really completed.
                throw new IOException("Stream write failed.");
        }

        if (read <= 0)
            return; // source stream says we're done - nothing else to read.

        // Swap the read and write buffers so we can write what we read, and we can
        //  use the then use the other buffer for our next read.
        byte[] tbuf = writebuffer;
        writebuffer = readbuffer;
        readbuffer = tbuf;

        // Asynchronously write the data, asyncResult.AsyncWaitHandle will
        // be set when done.
        asyncResult = target.BeginWrite(writebuffer, 0, read, null, null);
    }
}
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