Chapter 3
Models for Communication
3.1 Need for a Model
A distributed computation involves a number of processes communicating with one another. We observed in Chapter 2 that interprocess communication mechanism is fairly complex. If we want to develop algorithms or build applications for a distributed system, then the details of interprocess communication can be quite overwhelming. In general, there are many dimensions of variability in distributed systems. These include network topology, interprocess communication mechanisms, failure classes, and security mechanisms. Models are simple abstractions that help understand the variability—abstractions that preserve the essential features, but hide the implementation details from observers who view ...
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