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Indirect Communication Distributed Systems

Indirect communication in distributed systems involves methods where entities communicate through intermediaries, enhancing scalability and flexibility. Key types include message queues, publish-subscribe models, distributed shared memory, tuple spaces, and middleware systems. While it offers advantages like decoupling and fault tolerance, it also presents challenges such as increased latency and complexity.

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58 views3 pages

Indirect Communication Distributed Systems

Indirect communication in distributed systems involves methods where entities communicate through intermediaries, enhancing scalability and flexibility. Key types include message queues, publish-subscribe models, distributed shared memory, tuple spaces, and middleware systems. While it offers advantages like decoupling and fault tolerance, it also presents challenges such as increased latency and complexity.

Uploaded by

Kizito Dan Jr
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 DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Indirect Communication in Distributed Systems

Introduction
In distributed systems, communication between processes or nodes can be categorized as
direct or indirect. Indirect communication refers to methods where communicating entities
do not interact with each other directly but rather through intermediaries such as message
queues, publish-subscribe systems, or shared data spaces. This approach decouples senders
and receivers in terms of space, time, and synchronization, enhancing scalability and
flexibility.

Types of Indirect Communication

1. Message Queues
Message queues act as intermediaries that temporarily store messages sent by producers
until they are retrieved by consumers. This allows for asynchronous communication, where
senders and receivers do not need to be active simultaneously.

2. Publish-Subscribe Model
In the publish-subscribe model, publishers send messages to a central broker without
knowing who the subscribers are. Subscribers express interest in certain topics and receive
relevant messages when published. This model enables event-driven architectures and high
scalability.

3. Distributed Shared Memory (DSM)


Distributed shared memory provides a virtual address space shared among multiple
processes. Processes interact indirectly by reading and writing to this shared space, which
facilitates coordination without direct communication.

4. Tuple Spaces
Tuple spaces are a form of shared memory where structured data (tuples) can be deposited
and later retrieved by interested processes. Linda is a well-known example of a tuple space
implementation that supports coordination between distributed components.

5. Web Services and Middleware


Middleware systems such as CORBA, Java RMI, and RESTful web services provide indirect
communication mechanisms by abstracting direct network interactions. These systems help
distributed applications communicate seamlessly across heterogeneous environments.

Advantages of Indirect Communication


1. **Decoupling:** Senders and receivers do not need to be aware of each other.
2. **Scalability:** Enables systems to handle large-scale communication efficiently.
3. **Fault Tolerance:** Failure of one component does not directly impact others.
4. **Flexibility:** Supports dynamic changes in communication patterns.
Disadvantages of Indirect Communication
1. **Increased Latency:** Messages may take longer to be delivered.
2. **Complexity:** Managing intermediaries and ensuring consistency can be challenging.
3. **Overhead:** Requires additional resources for brokers, queues, or middleware services.

Conclusion
Indirect communication in distributed systems plays a crucial role in enabling loosely
coupled, scalable, and robust architectures. Various models such as message queues,
publish-subscribe, and tuple spaces provide mechanisms to facilitate interaction between
distributed components. Despite some trade-offs, these approaches are widely used in
modern distributed applications.

References

1. Coulouris, G., Dollimore, J., Kindberg, T., & Blair, G. (2011). Distributed Systems:
Concepts and Design (5th ed.). Pearson.

o This book provides an in-depth discussion on communication models in


distributed systems, including indirect communication.

2. Tanenbaum, A. S., & Van Steen, M. (2017). Distributed Systems: Principles and
Paradigms (3rd ed.). Pearson.

o Covers various distributed communication mechanisms, including message


queues and publish-subscribe architectures.

3. Eugster, P. T., Felber, P. A., Guerraoui, R., & Kermarrec, A.-M. (2003). The Many Faces
of Publish/Subscribe. ACM Computing Surveys, 35(2), 114–131.

o A detailed survey of the publish-subscribe model and its applications in


distributed systems.

4. Birman, K. P. (2005). Reliable Distributed Systems: Technologies, Web Services, and


Applications. Springer.

o Discusses messaging systems, middleware, and reliability aspects of


distributed communication.

5. Li, K., & Hudak, P. (1989). Memory Coherence in Shared Virtual Memory Systems. ACM
Transactions on Computer Systems, 7(4), 321–359.

o Explains the concept of Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) and its role in
indirect communication.
6. Gelernter, D. (1985). Generative Communication in Linda. ACM Transactions on
Programming Languages and Systems, 7(1), 80–112.

o A foundational paper on tuple spaces, which is a key mechanism for indirect


communication.

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