Streaming data over a network using a WCF service

WCF is an easy way to implement a distributed application and also provides built-in functions to handle complex problems. Streaming is one of the most important problems we always need to consider while working over a network in distributed applications. Applications deployed over a cloud sometimes need download or upload capabilities. Downloading a large file over a network using a buffered read technique such as a SOAP-based response can really be a bottleneck to the system. Reading a very large file from the memory can terminate the server process with OutofMemoryException.

WCF allows you to send byte streams through the communication channel, or even allows you to implement a service that might take the stream start location from the service call and send the stream from a certain location. It allows you to use normal HttpBinding to support streams that have download or upload capabilities in the connected client-server architecture...