OUTLINE

Distributed System Models.

Distributed System Software Layers
Distributed System Architectures.
Client-Server Model Variations.
Distributed Processes Interfaces and Objects.
Distributed
Requirements.

Architectures

Design

Fundamental Models:

Interaction Model.

Failure Model.

Security Model.
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Distributed System Models

Architectural models: (as client-server and peer process
models)

Define the way in which the components of systems are:

Interact with one another, and
Mapped onto an underlying network of computers.

Describe the layered structure of distributed system software.

Fundamental models:

Concerned with properties that are common in all of the architectural

models.

Addressed by three models:

The interaction model: deals with the difficulty of setting time limits.
The failure model: attempts to give a specification of the exhibited faults
by processes and communication channels.
The security model: discusses possible threats to processes and
communication channels.
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Software Layers
In the layered view of a system each layer offers its
services to the level above and builds its own
service on the services of the layer below.
Software architecture is the structuring of software
in terms of layers (modules) or services that can be
requested locally or remotely.
Applications
Middleware
Operating system

Platform

Computer and network hardware

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Software Layers
Platform:

Lowest-level layers that provide services to other higher layers.

bring a systems programming interface for communication
coordination between processes .
Examples:

and

Pentium processor / Windows NT

SPARC processor / Solaris

Middleware:

Layer of software to mask heterogeneity and provide a unified distributed

programming interface to application programmers.
Provide services, infrastructure services, for use by application programs.
Examples:
Object Management Groups Common Object Request Broker Architecture
(CORBA).
Java Remote Object Invocation (RMI).
Microsofts Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM).

Limitation: require application level involvement in some tasks.

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System Architectures
The architecture include:

The division of responsibilities between system components.

The placement of the components on computers in the network.

Client-server model:

Most important and most widely distributed system architecture.

Client and server roles are assigned and changeable.

Servers may in turn be clients of other servers.

Services may be implemented as several interacting processes in

different host computers to provide a service to client processes:

Servers partition the set of objects on which the service is based and
distribute them among themselves (e.g. Web data and web servers)

Servers maintain replicated copies of the service objects on several

hosts for reliability and performance (e.g. AltaVista)

System Architectures
Client

invocation
result

Client

invocation

Server

Server

result

Key:
Process:

Computer:

Clients invoke individual servers

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System Architectures
Service

Server
Client
Server
Client
Server

A service provided by multiple servers

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Centralized Architectures
Figure 2-3. General interaction between
a client and a server.

The Client-Server
Paradigm
Perhaps the best known paradigm for network applications, the
client-server2 model
assigns asymmetric roles to two
collaborating processes.
One process, the server, plays the role of a service provider which
waits passively for the arrival of requests. The other, the client,
issues specific requests to thes e r vserver
and awaits its response.
ic e re q u e s t
a c lie n t p ro c e s s
Server h o st

a se rve r p ro c e ss
a s e rvic e

...

C lient ho st

T h e C lie n t-S e r ve r P ar ad ig m , c o n c e p tu al

The Client-Server
Paradigm - 2
Simple in concept, the client-server model provides an
efficient abstraction for the delivery of network services.
Operations required include those for a server process to
listen and to accept requests, and for a client process to
issue requests and accept responses.
By assigning asymmetric roles to the two sides, event
synchronization is simplified: the server process waits for
requests, and the client in turn waits for responses.
Many Internet services are client-server applications.
These services are often known by the protocol that the
application implements. Well known Internet services
include HTTP, FTP, DNS, finger, gopher, etc.
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Multitiered Architectures (3)

Figure 2-6. An example of a server
acting as client.

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System Architectures
Caches and proxy servers:

Cache:
A store of recently used data objects that is closer to the
client process than those remote objects.
When an object is needed by a client process the caching
service checks the cache and supplies the object from
there in case of an up-to-date copy is available.

Proxy server:
Provides a shared cache of web resources for client
machines at a site or across several sites.
Increase availability and performance of a service by
reducing load on the WAN and web servers.
May be used to access remote web servers through a
firewall.
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System Architectures
Client

Web
server
Proxy
server
Web
server

Client

Web proxy server

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System Architectures
Peer processes:

All processes play similar roles without destination as a client or

a server.

Interacting cooperatively to perform a distributed activity.

Communications pattern will depend on application requirements.

Application
Coordinatio
n
code

Application
Coordinatio
n
code

Application
Coordinatio
n
code

A distributed application
based on peer processes
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Client-server Model Variations

(Mobile Code)

Example: Java applets

The user running a browser selects a link to an

applets whose code is stored on a web server.
The code is downloaded to the browser and runs
there.

Advantage:

Good interactive response since.

Does not suffer from the delays or variability of
bandwidth associated with network communication.

Disadvantage:

Security threat to the

destination computer.

local

resources

in

the
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Client-server Model Variations

(Mobile Code)

a) client request results in the downloading of applet code

Client
Applet code

Web
server

b) client interacts with the applet

Client

Applet

Web
server

Web applets
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Client-server Model Variations

(Mobile Agents)

A running program (including both code and data) that

travels from one computer to another in a network
carrying out a task on someones behalf.
Can make many invocations to local resources at each
visited site.
Visited sites must decide which local resources are
allowed to use based on the identity of the user owning
the agent.
Advantage: Reduce communication cost and time by
replacing remote invocation with local ones.
Disadvantages:

Limited applicability.

Security threat of the visited sites resources.

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Client-server Model Variations

(Network Computers)

Downloads its operating system and any applications

needed by the user from a remote file server.

Applications run locally but files are managed by a

remote file server.

Users can migrate from one network computer to

another.

Its processor and memory capacities can be restricted to

reduce its cost.

Its disk (if included) holds only a minimum of software

and use the reminder space as cache storage to hold
copies of the most recently software and data files
loaded from servers.
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Client-server Model Variations

(Thin Clients)

Software layer that supports a window-based user

interface on a local computer while executing
application programs on a remote computer.
Same as the network computer scheme but
instead of downloading the applications code into
the users computer, it runs them on a server
machine, compute server.
Compute server is a powerful computer that has
the capacity to run large numbers of applications
simultaneously.
Disadvantage: Increasing of the delays in highly
interactive graphical applications
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Client-server Model Variations

(Thin Clients)

Network computer or PC

Thin
Client

network

Compute server

Application
Process

Thin clients and compute servers

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The Peer-to-Peer System Architecture

http://www.peer-to-peerwg.org/whatis/index.html

In system architecture and networks, peer-to-peer is

an architecture where computer resources and
services are direct exchanged between computer
systems.

These resources and services include the exchange of

information, processing cycles, cache storage, and
disk storage for files..
In such an architecture, computers that have
traditionally been used solely as clients communicate
directly among themselves and can act as both
clients and servers, assuming whatever role is most
efficient for the network.
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The Peer-to-Peer Distributed Computing

Paradigm
In the peer-to-peer paradigm, the participating
processes play equal roles, with equivalent
capabilities and responsibilities (hence the term
peer). Each participant may issue a request to
another participant and receive
a response.
pro ce ss 1

re q u e s t

re q u e s t
re s p o n s e

re s p o n s e

pro ce ss 2

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Peer-to-Peer distributed computing

Whereas the client-server paradigm is an ideal model for
a centralized network service, the peer-to-peer paradigm
is more appropriate for applications such as instant
messaging,
peer-to-peer
file
transfers,
video
conferencing, and collaborative work. It is also possible
for an application to be based on both the client-server
model and the peer-to-peer model.
A well-known example of a peer-to-peer file transfer
service is Napster.com or similar sites which allow files
(primarily audio files) to be transmitted among
computers on the Internet. It makes use of a server for
directory in addition to the peer-to-peer computing.
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24

Peer-to-Peer distributed computing

The peer-to-peer paradigm can be implemented with facilities using

any tool that provide message-passing, or with a higher-level tool
such as one that supports the point-to-point model of the
Message System paradigm.
For web applications, the web agent is a protocol promoted by the
XNSORG (the XNS Public Trust Organization) for peer-to-peer
interprocess communication
Project JXTA is a set of open, generalized peer-to-peer protocols that
allow any connected device (cell phone, to PDA, PC to server) on
the network to communicate and collaborate. JXTA is short for
Juxtapose, as in side by side. It is a recognition that peer to peer
is juxtapose to client server or Web based computing -- what is
considered today's traditional computing model.

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Interfaces and Objects

Interface definitions specify the set of functions available
for invocation in a server (or peer) processes.

In OO paradigm, distributed processes can be constructed

as objects whose methods can be accessed by remote
invocation (COBRA approach).

Many objects can be encapsulated in server or peer

processes.

Number, types, and locations (in some implementation) of

objects may change dynamically as system activates
require.

Therefore, new services can be instantiated

immediately be made available for invocation.

and
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The Message Passing

Paradigm
Message passing is the most fundamental
paradigm for distributed applications.

A process sends a message representing a

request.

The message is delivered to a receiver, which

processes the request, and sends a
message in response.

In turn, the reply may trigger a further

request, which leads to a subsequent reply,
and so forth. The message-

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The Message Passing

Paradigm - 2

Message

passing is the most fundamental paradigm for

distributed applications.

A process sends a message representing a request.

The message is delivered to a receiver, which processes
the request, and sends a message in response.
In turn, the reply may trigger a further request, which
leads to a subsequent reply, and so forth. P rocess A

P roce ss B

a m essage

M e s s a g e p a s s in g

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The Message Passing

Paradigm - 3

The basic operations required to support the basic

message passing paradigm are send, and receive.

For connection-oriented communication, the operations

connect and disconnect are also required.

With the abstraction provided by this model, the

interconnected processes perform input and output to
each other, in a manner similar to file I/O.
The I/O
operations
encapsulate
the
detail
of
network
communication at the operating-system level.

The socket application programming interface is based

on this paradigm.

http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/index.h
tml
http://www.sockets.com/
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Architectures Design Requirements

Performance Issues:

Considered under the following factors:

Responsiveness:

Fast and consistent response time is important for the users of

interactive applications.
Response speed is determined by the load and performance of the
server and the network and the delay in all the involved software
components.
System must be composed of relatively few software layers and
small quantities of transferred data to achieve good response times.

Throughput:

The rate at which work is done for all users in a distributed system.

Load balancing:

Enable applications and service processes to proceed concurrently

without competing for the same resources.
Exploit available processing resources.
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Architectures Design Requirements

Quality of Service:

Main system properties that affect the service quality are:

Reliability: related to failure fundamental model (discussed later).

Performance: ability to meet timeliness guarantees.
Security: related to security fundamental model (discussed later).
Adaptability: ability to meet changing resource availability and
system configurations.

Dependability issues:

A requirement in most application domains.

Achieved by:
Fault tolerance: continuing to function in the presence of failures.
Security: locate sensitive data only in secure computers.
Correctness of distributed concurrent programs: research topic.

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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

Distributed systems consists of multiple interacting

processes with private set of data that can access.
Distributed processes behavior is described by
distributed algorithms.
Distributed algorithms define the steps to be taken
by each process in the system including the
transmission of messages between them.
Transmitted
messages
transfer
information
between these processes and coordinate their
ordering and synchronization activities.
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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

Interacting processes in a distributed system are affected

by two significant factors:
1. Performance of communication channels: is characterized by:

Latency: delay between sending and receipt of a message including

Network access time.

Time for first bit transmitted through a network to reach its destination.

Processing time within the sending and receiving processes.

Throughput: number of units (e.g., packets) delivered per time unit.

Bandwidth: total amount of information transmitted per time unit.

Jitter: variation in the time taken to deliver multiple messages of the

same type (relevant to multimedia data).

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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

2.

Computer clocks:

Each computer in a distributed system has its own internal clock

to supply the value of the current time to local processes.

Therefore, two processes running on different computers read

their clocks at the same time may take different time values.

Clock drift rate refers to the relative amount a computer clock

differs from a perfect reference clock.

Several approaches to correcting the times on computer clocks

are proposed.

Clock corrections can be made by sending messages, from a

computer has an accurate time to other computers, which will
still be affected by network delays.

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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

Setting time limits for process execution, as

message delivery, in a distributed system is hard.
Two opposing extreme positions provide a pair of
simple interaction models:

Synchronous distributed systems:

A system in which the following bounds are defined:

Time to execute each step of a process has known lower and

upper bounds.
Each message transmitted over a channel is received within a
known bounded time.
Each process has a local clock whose drift rate from perfect time
has a known bound.

Easier to handle, but determining realistic bounds can be hard

or impossible.
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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

Asynchronous distributed systems:

A system in which there are no bounds on:
process execution times.
message delivery times.
clock drift rate.

Allows no assumptions about the time intervals

involved in any execution.
Exactly models the Internet.
Browsers are designed to allow users to do other
things while they are waiting.

More abstract and general:

A distributed algorithm executing on one system is
likely to also work on another one.
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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

Event ordering: when need to know if an event at one

process (sending or receiving a message) occurred before,
after, or concurrently with another event at another process.

It is impossible for any process in a distributed system to

have a view on the current global state of the system.

The execution of a system can be described in terms of

events and their ordering despite the lack of accurate clocks.

Logical clocks define some event order based on causality.

Logical time can be used to provide ordering among events

in different computers in a distributed system (since real
clocks cannot be synchronized).

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Fundamental Models
(Interaction Model)

send
X

receive
m1
2
receive

receive

4
send
3

m2
receive

Physical
time

send

receive

receive
m3

A
t1

t2

m1

m2

receive receive receive

t3

Real-time ordering of events

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Fundamental Models
(Failure Model)

Defines the ways in which failure may occur in

order to provide an understanding of its effects.
A taxonomy of failures which distinguish
between the failures of processes and
communication channels is provided:

Omission failures
Process or channel failed to do something.

Arbitrary failures
Any type of error can occur in processes or channels (worst).

Timing failures
Applicable only to synchronous distributed systems where
time limits may not be met.
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Fundamental Models
(Failure Model)

Process

Process

sendm

receive

Communication channel
Outgoing message buffer

Incoming message buffer

Processes and channels

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Fundamental Models
(Failure Model)

Omission and arbitrary failures

Classoffailure
Failstop

Affects
Process

Description
Processhaltsandremainshalted.Otherprocessesmay
detectthisstate.
Crash
Process
Processhaltsandremainshalted.Otherprocessesmay
notbeabletodetectthisstate.
Omission
Channel
Amessageinsertedinanoutgoingmessagebuffernever
arrivesattheotherendsincomingmessagebuffer.
Sendomission
Process
Aprocesscompletesa send,butthemessageisnotput
initsoutgoingmessagebuffer.
Receiveomission Process
Amessageisputinaprocesssincomingmessage
buffer,butthatprocessdoesnotreceiveit.
Arbitrary
Processor Process/channelexhibitsarbitrarybehaviour:itmay
(Byzantine)
channel
send/transmitarbitrarymessagesatarbitrarytimes,
commitomissions;aprocessmaystoportakean
incorrectstep.
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Fundamental Models
(Failure Model)

Timing failures
ClassofFailure

Affects

Description

Clock

Process

Performance

Process

Performance

Channel

Processslocalclockexceedstheboundsonits
rateofdriftfromrealtime.
Processexceedstheboundsontheinterval
betweentwosteps.
Amessagestransmissiontakeslongerthanthe
statedbound.

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Fundamental Models
(Security Model)

Secure processes and channels and protect objects

encapsulated against unauthorized access.
Protecting access to objects

Access rights
In client server systems: involves authentication of
clients.

Protecting processes and interactions

Threats to processes:
requests / replies.

problem

of

unauthenticated

e.g., "man in the middle"

Threats to communication channels: enemy may copy,

alter or inject messages as they travel across network.
Use of secure channels, based on cryptographic methods.
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Fundamental Models
(Security Model)

Access rights

Object

invocation
Client

Server

result

Principal (user)

Network

Principal (server)

Objects and principals

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Fundamental Models
(Security Model)
Copy of m

The enemy

m
Process p

Process q
Communication channel

The enemy
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Fundamental Models
(Security Model)

Principal B

Principal A

Process p

Secure channel

Process q

Secure channels
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Fundamental Models
(Security Model)

Denial of service

e.g., pings to selected web sites

Generating debilitating network or server load so

that network services become de facto unavailable

Mobile code:

Requires executability privileges on target machine

Code may be malicious (e.g., mail worms)

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