Getting Resource from fsockopen behing proxy

Question

I have an existing code which is :

$Socket = fsockopen(HOST, PORT);

where $Socket returned here is a resource. However, i need to get it behind a proxy server with Authentication. I am sure it could be done via

public static function returnData($url, $port)
    {
        $fp = fsockopen(static::$ip, static::$port); // connect to proxy
        $login = static::$login;
        $passwd = static::$passwd;

        fputs($fp, "GET <a href=\"https://$url/\" "
            . "title=\"https://$url/\">https://$url/</a> HTTP/1.1\r\n"
            . "Host:$url:$port\r\n"
            . "Proxy-Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode("$login:$passwd") . "\r\n\r\n");

        $data = "";
        while (!feof($fp)) $data .= fgets($fp, 64000);
        fclose($fp);
        return $data;
    }

but the function here returns string and not resource.

How can i get the resource returned or how could be resource be retrieved using cURL