Client Server Model
Client Server Model
Most of the Net Applications use the Client-Server architecture, which refers to two processes or
two applications that communicate with each other to exchange some information. One of the two
processes acts as a client process, and another process acts as a server.
Client Process
This is the process, which typically makes a request for information. After getting the response, this
process may terminate or may do some other processing.
Example, Internet Browser works as a client application, which sends a request to the Web Server
to get one HTML webpage.
Server Process
This is the process which takes a request from the clients. After getting a request from the client,
this process will perform the required processing, gather the requested information, and send it to
the requestor client. Once done, it becomes ready to serve another client. Server processes are
always alert and ready to serve incoming requests.
Example: Web Server keeps waiting for requests from Internet Browsers and as soon as it gets
any request from a browser, it picks up a requested HTML page and sends it back to that Browser.
Note that the client needs to know the address of the server, but the server does not need to know
the address or even the existence of the client prior to the connection being established. Once a
connection is established, both sides can send and receive information.
2-tier architecture: In this architecture, the client directly interacts with the server. This
type of architecture may have some security holes and performance problems. Internet
Explorer and Web Server work on two-tier architecture. Here security problems are resolved
using Secure Socket Layer SSL.
3-tier architectures: In this architecture, one more software sits in between the client and
the server. This middle software is called ‘middleware’. Middleware are used to perform all
the security checks and load balancing in case of heavy load. A middleware takes all
requests from the client and after performing the required authentication, it passes that
request to the server. Then the server does the required processing and sends the response
back to the middleware and finally the middleware passes this response back to the client. If
you want to implement a 3-tier architecture, then you can keep any middleware like Web
Logic or WebSphere software in between your Web Server and Web Browser.
Types of Server
There are two types of servers you can have:
Iterative Server: This is the simplest form of server where a server process serves one
client and after completing the first request, it takes request from another client. Meanwhile,
another client keeps waiting.
Concurrent Servers: This type of server runs multiple concurrent processes to serve many
requests at a time because one process may take longer and another client cannot wait for
so long. The simplest way to write a concurrent server under Unix is to fork a child process to
handle each client separately.
The steps involved in establishing a socket on the client side are as follows:
Connect the socket to the address of the server using the connect system call.
Send and receive data. There are a number of ways to do this, but the simplest way is to use
the read and write system calls.
Bind the socket to an address using the bind system call. For a server socket on the Internet,
an address consists of a port number on the host machine.
Accept a connection with the accept system call. This call typically blocks the connection
until a client connects with the server.
Send and receive data using the read and write system calls.