Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Remote Procedure Call or RPC, is a technique for implementing inter-process communication. Remote Procedure Call allows the calling functions in other address spaces. Normally the functions are accessed on a different computer than runs the calling program. There are many implementations of this technique, usually they are not compatible with each other.

Procedure of Remote Procedure Call

Remote Procedure Call is a possibility that is implemented on a client-server model. The communication starts when the client makes a request to a known server and waits for the response. The request of the client indicates which function should be executed with which parameters. The server processes the request and sends the response back to the client. After receiving the message, the client can continue its processing.

Remote Procedure Call communication error happens due to different erroneousness situations. Remote Procedure Call is generally based on UDP. Therefore, Remote Procedure Call is a connectionless communication. This has the advantage that no traffic overhead is created by packets. However, the UDP packet size is not sufficient for large responses. Therefore, two types of Remote Procedure Call protocols exist.

Because each of these two protocols of Remote Procedure Call have other sources of errors and therefore a different error handling is necessary.

Operation of Remote Procedure Call

The search for an appropriate server can be realized in a local area network by the use of a directory service . Search and coding, for example, are necessary for recovery measures for Remote Procedure Call on the client side.

The most important component on the server side is the daemon, Remote Procedure Call in the UDP and TCP port listen and takes over this function. Any program that wants to call Remote Procedure Call based services available, must be be known.

If the computer on which the server process is running receives the Remote Procedure Call, either the process is created that performs the procedure or alternatively a process can be activated.