Architectural Model

Architectural model in distributed computing system is the overall design and structure of the system, and how its different components are organised to interact with each other and provide the desired functionalities. It is an overview of the system, on how will the development, deployment and operations take place. Construction of a good architectural model is required for efficient cost usage, and highly improved scalability of the applications.

The key aspects of architectural model are: 

1. Client-Server model

It is a centralised approach in which the clients initiate requests for services and severs respond by providing those services. It mainly works on the request-response model where the client sends a request to the server and the server processes it, and responds to the client accordingly.

• It can be achieved by using TCP/IP, HTTP protocols on the transport layer.
• This is mainly used in web services, cloud computing, database management systems etc.

2. Peer-to-peer model

It is a decentralised approach in which all the distributed computing nodes, known as peers, are all the same in terms of computing capabilities and can both request as well as provide services to other peers. It is a highly scalable model because the peers can join and leave the system dynamically, which makes it an ad-hoc form of network.

• The resources are distributed and the peers need to look out for the required resources as and when required.
• The communication is directly done amongst the peers without any intermediaries according to some set rules and procedures defined in the P2P networks.
• The best example of this type of computing is BitTorrent.

3. Layered model

It involves organising the system into multiple layers, where each layer will provision a specific service. Each layer communicated with the adjacent layers using certain well-defined protocols without affecting the integrity of the system. A hierarchical structure is obtained where each layer abstracts the underlying complexity of lower layers. 

4. Micro-services model

In this system, a complex application or task, is decomposed into multiple independent tasks and these services running on different servers. Each service performs only a single function and is focussed on a specific business-capability. This makes the overall system more maintainable, scalable and easier to understand. Services can be independently developed, deployed and scaled without affecting the ongoing services.

Distributed computing is a system where processing and data storage is distributed across multiple devices or systems, rather than handled by a single central device. In this article, we will see Distributed Computing System Models.