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IPT Week02Lecture03

This document discusses different aspects of distributed systems and client-server architecture. It defines distributed systems as systems where information processing is distributed over multiple computers rather than confined to a single machine. It also discusses different distributed system architectures like client-server, distributed object architectures, and peer-to-peer. Middleware is introduced as software that manages different components in a distributed system. Characteristics of client-server architecture are outlined along with thin and fat client models. The document also covers scaling of client-server systems and tiered architectures.

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k172387 Kashif Hussain
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57 views

IPT Week02Lecture03

This document discusses different aspects of distributed systems and client-server architecture. It defines distributed systems as systems where information processing is distributed over multiple computers rather than confined to a single machine. It also discusses different distributed system architectures like client-server, distributed object architectures, and peer-to-peer. Middleware is introduced as software that manages different components in a distributed system. Characteristics of client-server architecture are outlined along with thin and fat client models. The document also covers scaling of client-server systems and tiered architectures.

Uploaded by

k172387 Kashif Hussain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Information Processing

Techniques
Week 02 Lecture 03

M U RTA ZA M U N AWAR FA ZA L
Distributed Systems
▪Virtually all large computer-based systems are now
distributed systems.
▪Information processing is distributed over several
computers rather than confined to a single machine.
▪Different distributed systems architectures
▪ parallel/cluster/grid computing
▪ client-server
▪ distributed object architectures -CORBA; .NET; J2EE
▪ peer-to-peer
▪ service-oriented architectures
Middleware
▪Software that manages and supports the different components of a
distributed system. In essence, it sits in the middle of the system.
▪Middleware can be off-the-shelf rather than specially written software
▪Examples
▪ Transaction processing monitors;
▪ Data converters;
▪ Communication controllers.
Client-server architecture
▪Distributed system model where data and processing is distributed
across a range of components
▪Set of servers which provide specific services such as printing, data
management, etc.
▪Set of clients which call on these services
▪Network which allows clients to access servers
▪Clients know of servers but servers need not know of clients
Example: Film and picture library
Computers in a C/S network
Client-server characteristics
▪Advantages
▪ Distribution of data is straightforward
▪ Makes effective use of networked systems
▪ May require cheaper hardware
▪ Easy to add new servers or upgrade existing servers

▪Disadvantages
▪ No shared data model so sub-systems use different data organization-data
interchange may be inefficient
▪ Redundant management in each server
▪ No central register of names and services -it may be hard to find out what
servers and services are available
Layered application
architecture
▪Presentation layer
▪ Concerned with presenting the results of a computation to system users and
with collecting user inputs

▪Application processing layer


▪ Concerned with providing application specific functionality e.g., in a banking
system, banking functions such as open account, close account, etc.

▪Data management layer


▪ Concerned with managing the system databases
Thin and fat clients
▪Thin-client model
▪ all of the application processing and data management is carried out on the
server
▪ client is simply responsible for running the presentation software

▪Fat-client model
▪ the server is only responsible for data management.
▪ software on the client implements the application logic and the interactions
with the system user
Scaling
Environment is typically heterogeneous and multi-vendor
▪Client-server systems can be scaled horizontally or vertically
◦ Horizontal scaling means adding or removing client workstations with only a
slight performance impact. (Adding more machines)
◦ Vertical scaling means migrating to a larger and faster server machine or
multi servers. (adding hardware resources to the same machines)

▪The front-end task and back-end task have fundamentally different


requirements for computing resources
◦ servers typically expensive, fast, multi-processor systems, with large storage
capacity
◦ clients less expensive
Tiering
▪A two-tier architecture is one where a client talks directly to a server,
with no intervening server
◦ This type of architecture is typically used in small environments with less
than 50 users

▪A three-tier architecture introduces another server (or an "agent")


between the client and the server
▪ The role of the middle-tier agent is many-fold - it can provide translation
services as in adapting a legacy application on a mainframe to a client/server
environnent
▪ A plethora of software technologies have evolved to fill the middle tier -
middleware

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