Client-Server Architecture

Lotfi ben Othmane

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand client/server architecture

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What is Software Architecture?

Architecture is defined by the recommended practice as the

fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its
components, their relationships to each other and the
environment, and the principles governing its design and
evolution.

ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000, Recommended Practice for Architectural

Description of Software-Intensive Systems

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Reference Architecture

Reference architecture provides an overall logical

structure for a particular type of application.

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Single-Process Architecture

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Single-Process Applications

Reference architectures for single-process applications:

1. Desktop application
2. Embedded system
3. Mobile application
4. Service

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Client/Server Application

Is this git a desktop application?

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Client/Server Application

Server

Client 1 Client 2

Client 3 Client 4
One server and a set of clients
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Client-Server Style

• A client-server style is a style that involves client processes

and a server process that communicate through a network.
A server could be accessed by many clients and a client can
access many servers.

• A client sends requests, gets replies, and processes them.

• Examples: Email, database systems, etc.

• Variation of structures: Application servers, P2P (peer to

peer), Client-Queue-Client-System (e.g. chat).
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Client-Server Architecture

SSH SSH
Client 1 Client 2

Client-server model is a
distributed application
Secure
model where tasks are Shell (SSH)
partitioned between Server
the client and server.

SSH SSH
Client 3 Client 3

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Putty – SSH Client

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell
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Client-Server Architecture

SSH SSH
Client 1 Client 2

What operations does

SSH
ssh need to support? Server

SSH SSH
Client 3 Client 3

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 Client-Server Architecture
SSH Operations
• Login
• Send commands
• Display command results
• Logout
• Create application session
• Execute commands
• Close session

Example of operations to be performed by the client and server.

Note: There is no order of the lists’ items.
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Exercise – Client-Server Architecture

SSH SSH
Client 1 Client 2
Now we need to split
the operations
between the client
component and server SSH
component. Then we Server
need to specify the
interactions between
both components
SSH SSH
Client 3 Client 3

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Client-Server Architecture

Client Server
• Send username • Accept username
• Send password • Verify password
• Send commands • Create application session
• Set application session • Execute commands
• Display command results • Close session
• Request logout

Example of operations to be performed by the client and server.

Note: There is no order of the lists’ items.
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Uses of the Style

You should consider the style to:

• Support many clients (web applications, business

processes…).
• Centralize data and management functions.
• Support many different types of clients.

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Uses of the Style – Cont.

Problems associated with sharing resources include:

• Managing the availability of resources for the clients at the
server
• Managing the concurrency to access the resources
• Controlling the performance of the server
• Managing accesses to the clients scopes
• Diversity of the clients operating systems
• And more…
How would you solve these problems?

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Benefits - Ease of Data Management

One process can manage several accesses to the data

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Benefits - Ease of Maintenance

We deploy only one application server.

Each user can install a version of the client. 19
Disadvantages - Scalability

Git Git
Repository Repository

Scaling the server component requires scaling

both the data and the business logic together.
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Disadvantages - Reliability

Failure of THE server affects all the users.

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History

We wanted to share documents but,

• Do not have physical access to clients.

• Do not want to deploy the client application on the
desktops.
• Need to support different hardware types.
• Need to support different operation systems (Linux, OS2,
DOS/Windows, MAC OS).

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 Simple Application – Web Sites

Web browsers communicate with a server using the HTTP protocol

Server

HTTP + HTML

Web Browser

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Web Applications

• We want to get data from the user

and respond based on their
requests – dynamic web pages.

• Each component is assigned a set of

responsibilities.

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Web Applications

Use web applications when:

1. You do not want to deploy software at the client host

2. There’s a need for the user interface to be portable
3. The application can be used over the Internet
4. Its ok to have restricted access to resources at the client

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But what if:

1. You do not want to deploy software at the client host

2. There’s a need for the user interface to be portable
3. The application can be used over the Internet
4. Its ok to have restricted access to resources at the client
5. There is a need to access resources of the client

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Rich Client Applications

• Rich internet applications

typically run inside a browser.
They support rich user
interaction and business
logic.

• Some business logic may be

executed on the host
machine.
• May use local resources.

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Rich Client Applications

Reasons to use rich client applications:

• We need a rich interface that runs in a browser.

• We need to perform complex business logic on the client’s
machine.
• The deployment of the application is simple.
• Loading time is acceptable.

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So…

Architecture references (like client/server, web app) solve

common challenges through the structure of the software:
sharing data and processing, portability and deployability.

Architects fit their components into the reference architecture

and use existing technologies such as web servers and
database management systems as third-party software to
address their needs.

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Thank You

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