Distributed Computing
Second Edition
Sunita Mahajan
Seema Shah
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Chapter 4
Remote
Communication
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OUTLINE
• Introduction to
remote
communication
• Remote procedural
call basics
• RPC implementation
• RPC communication
• Other RPC issues
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Introduction
• Middleware
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Remote Procedural Call Basics
Local Procedure Call
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Remote Procedure Call
Basic RPC operation
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RPC Operation
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Elements of RPC Mechanism
Implementation
• Client
• Client stub
• RPC Runtime
• Server stub
• Server
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RPC Execution
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Stub Generation
• Manual generation
• Auto generation using Interface Definition Language (IDL)
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RPC Compilation
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RPC Implementation
• RPC messages
– Call / Request
– Reply
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RPC Call/ Request Message
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RPC Reply Conditions
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RPC Reply Message
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Parameter Passing Semantics
• Call-by-value semantic
– Marshalling
• Call-by-reference semantic
• Call-by-copy/restore semantic
➢ Call-by-value copies all parameters into a message before
transmission .
➢ Call-by-reference passes pointers to the parameters that are
passed from the client to the server.
➢ Call-by-copy/restore uses temporary storage accessible to
both programs
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Call-by-value Semantic
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Byte Ordering
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Server Management
• Server implementation
– Stateless server
– Stateful server
• Server management
– Instance per call
– Instance per session
– Persistent servers
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RPC Communication
RPC call semantics
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Orphan Calls
• Calls whose caller has expired due to a node crash
• Handle orphan calls by using
– Extermination
– Reincarnation
– Gentle reincarnation
– Expiration
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RPC Communication Protocols
• Request protocol
• Request/Reply protocol
• Request/Reply/Acknowledge-Reply protocol
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Request Protocol
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Asynchronous RPC
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Request/Reply Protocol
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Request/Reply/Acknowledge-Repl
y Protocol
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Client-server Binding Process
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Client-server Binding
• Issues • Types of binding
– Server naming – Fixed binding
– Server locating – Dynamic binding
• At compile time
• At link time
• Binding agent primitives • At run time
– Register
– Deregister
– Lookup
Other Issues in RPC Implementation
• Exception handing and security
• Failure handling
• Optimizing RPC execution
• Various types of complicated RPCs
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RPC in Heterogeneous Environment
• Data presentation
• Transport protocol
• Control protocol
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Failure Handling Mechanism in RPC
• Client cannot find the server
• Request from client to the server is lost
• Reply from server to the client is lost
• Server crashes after getting the request
• Client crashes after sending the request
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RPC Optimization
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Concurrent Access to Multiple Servers
• Use of threads
• Early reply technique
• Call buffering approach
• Serving multiple requests simultaneously
• Reducing call workload of server
• Using reply cache for idempotent RPC
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Early Reply Technique
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Call Buffer Approach
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Complicated and Special RPCs
• Complicated RPCs
– RPCs with long duration calls or with gaps between calls
– RPCs with long messages
• Special RPCs
– Call back RPC
– Broadcast RPC
– Batch mode RPC
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Callback RPC
• Client handle is provided to the server
• Client process should wait for callback RPC
• Handle callback deadlocks
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Remote invocation Basics
Remote Object Invocation
• Distributed object concept
– Remote objects reference
– Remote interface
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RMI
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RMI vs LMI
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RMI Implementation
Design issues in RMI
• RMI invocation semantics • RMI invocation semantics
– Maybe semantics
• Level of transparency
– Marshalling – At-least-once semantics
– Message passing – At-most-once semantics
– Task of locating and
contacting the remote
object for the client
Invocation Semantics
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Level of Transparency
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Components of RMI
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RMI Execution Components
• Communication module
• Remote reference module
• RMI software
• Server program
• Client program
• Binder
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RMI Execution
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RMI Software
• Proxy
• Dispatcher
• Skeleton
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Types of Objects
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Remote Invocation Readiness
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RMI Binding
• Implicit binding
• Explicit binding
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Parameter Passing in RMI
• Pass by value
• Pass by reference
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