Contents

PROCESS.......................................................................................................................................................................... 1
INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION..................................................................................................................................1
Synchronous and asynchronous communication............................................................................................................2
Remote invocation (middle layer)...................................................................................................................................2
RPC vs RMI...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Call By Value:...................................................................................................................................................................3
Call by Reference:............................................................................................................................................................3
Call by Copy/Restore.......................................................................................................................................................3
RPC Steps:.......................................................................................................................................................................4
Message vs Stream oriented communication UDP vs TCP..............................................................................................4
Message passing:............................................................................................................................................................4
Message passing vs RPC..................................................................................................................................................5
MULTICAST...................................................................................................................................................................... 5

PROCESS
• Instance
• A concrete occurrence of any object in object- oriented programming (OOP);
• Existing during the runtime of a computer program.
• Formally, instance = object (with a particular value).
• Process
• The instance being executed by one or many threads;
• Contains the program code and its activity;
• May consist of many concurrently executing threads;
• Several processes may be associated with the same program.
• Multitasking
• Multiple processes to share processors (CPUs) and other system resources.
• Each CPU (core) executes a single task at a time.
• Each processor switches between tasks without waiting for finishing each task.
• Switches occur when
• Tasks perform input/output operations,
• Task indicates that it can be switched, or
• Hardware interrupts.
• Time-sharing
• A multitasking method to allow high responsiveness for interactive user applications.
• Context switches are performed rapidly
• Like multiple processes are being executed simultaneously on the same processor (concurrency).

INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATION
• Process communication
• Processes in an operation system
• Processes in different operation systems
• Exchanging messages across the computer network;
• The processes reside in the application layer.
• The Interface Between the Process and the Computer Network
Processes send and receive messages through a software interface called a socket;
Socket: Application Programming Interface (API) between the application and the
network
 Characteristics:
• Endpoint for inter-process communication
• Message transmission between sockets
• A socket is associated with either UDP or TCP
• Sockets are bound to ports
• One process can use many ports
• Processes don’t share sockets (unless for IP multicast)
Socket= Internet address + port number
• Only one receiver but many senders per port
• Advantage: several points of entry to process
• Disadvantage: location dependence

The only control that the application developer has on the transport- layer side:
• The choice of transport protocol;
• A few transport-layer parameters such as maximum
buffer and maximum segment sizes
Addressing Processes:
• IP address
• Port number
Two message communication operations: send & receive (both can be blocking
or non-blocking). Receive is usually blocking– destination process blocked until
message arrives– most common case

Synchronous and asynchronous communication

Synchronous: blocking operations.

• Whenever a send is issued the sending process is blocked until the corresponding receive is issued.

• Whenever a receive is issued by a process, it blocks until a message arrives.

• Problems– failure and indefinite delay causes indefinite blocking (use timeout)– multicasting/broadcasting
not supported– implementation more complex

Asynchronous:

• Send is nonblocking

• Receive: Blocking or Non-blocking: the receiving process proceeds with its program after issuing a receive
operation.
 • Problems– buffer overflow– error reporting (difficult to match error with message)

Remote invocation (middle layer)

1. Request-reply protocols:

• On top of message passing

• Two-way exchange of messages, as in client-server computing;

• Relatively low-level support for requesting the execution of a remote operation.

2. Remote procedure call (RPC)

• Client programs to call procedures transparently in server programs running in separate processes
and generally in different computers from the client.

3. Remote method invocation (RMI):

• Objects in different processes to communicate with one another;

• An object living in one process to invoke the methods of an object living in another process.

RPC vs RMI

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

• A computer program causes a procedure to execute

in a different address space

• e.g., another computer on a shared

network.

Challenges:

• Different address spaces;

• Parameters and results also have to be

passed;

• Either or both machines can crash.

A stub is a piece of code that converts parameters passed

between client and server.
 • Different address spaces;

• Different data representations.

Call By Value:
• Values of actual parameters are copied to function’s formal parameters;

• Two types of parameters are stored in different memory locations.

• Any changes made inside functions are not reflected in actual parameters of caller.

Call by Reference:
• Both the actual and formal parameters refer to same locations,

• Any changes made inside the function are actually reflected in actual parameters of caller.

Call by Copy/Restore
• A special case of call-by-reference

• The provided reference is unique to the caller.

• The final result on the referenced values will not be saved until the end of the function.

• The decision of which parameter passing mechanism to use is normally made by the language
designers and is a fixed property of the language.

• Sometimes it depends on the data type being passed.

RPC Steps:
• The client procedure calls the client stub in the normal way.

• The client stub builds a message and calls the local operating
system.

• The client's sends the message to the remote

• The remote gives the message to the server stub.

• The server stub unpacks the parameters and calls the server.

• The server does the work and returns the result to the stub.

• The server stub packs it in a message and calls its local.

• The server's sends the message to the client's.

• The client's gives the message to the client stub.

• The stub unpacks the result and returns to the client.

Message vs Stream oriented communication UDP vs TCP

Message-oriented communication

Message passing:
A technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program)
on a computer.

• The invoking program sends a message to a process (e.g.,

an actor or object) and relies on that process and its
supporting infrastructure to select and then run the code
it selects.

• A way for objects of a program to work with each other;

• A means for objects and systems in different computers to

interact.

Message Passing Interface

• A standardized and portable message-passing standard function on a wide variety of parallel

computing architectures.

• Consisting of syntax and semantics of

a core of library routines useful to a
wide range of users writing portable
message-passing programs in C, C++,
and Fortran.

• Supporting hybrid distributed

memory/shared memory systems.;

• Handling different interconnects and protocols.

Message passing vs RPC

MULTICAST
Question Bank