Distributed Computing Wikiclass | Lecture / Distributed Computing Overview

A Distributed Computing Lecture by Steven Choy

Characteristics of Distributed Applications

Interprocess communication (IPC)

A distributed application require the participation of two or more independent processes (running on separate machines). The processes must have the ability to exchange data among themselves.

Event synchronization

In a distributed application, the sending and receiving of data among the participating processes need to be synchronized.

Distributed Application Paradigms

Message Passing Paradigm (lowest level of abstraction)
Client-Server Paradigm
Message System Paradigm
Remote Procedure Call
Distributed Objects Paradigm
- Java RMI, CORBA
Network Services Paradigm (highest level of abstraction)
- Web Services, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Client/Server Model

the most common form of Distributed Systems
- Clients initiate communications by making requests to servers and then wait for a response
- Servers never initiate communications, but simply respond to client requests
- Communication thus takes the form of a request followed by a response
Fat Clients
Thin Clients

Thanks for Reading

If you would rather like to have this lecture note in printed format, please click the print action link in the top right corner.

If you find any problem in this lecture note, please feel free to reach Steven by steven@findaway.hk