RPCstyle

RPCstyle is a design approach for building distributed systems in which components expose procedures that can be invoked remotely as if they were local. In RPCstyle, a client issues a call to a remote service, and the framework handles network communication, data marshaling, and error propagation to resemble a normal function call.

Typical elements include a defined interface or contract that lists available procedures and their data types, and generated client-side stubs and server-side skeletons. The client uses a local proxy to marshal arguments, send the request to the server, and receive a result or error, masking the underlying network details.

RPCstyle has a long history, from early Sun RPC and ONC RPC to modern frameworks such as gRPC, Apache Thrift, JSON-RPC, and XML-RPC. Many systems rely on an interface description language (IDL) such as Protocol Buffers or Thrift to generate code. Transport layers vary and may include HTTP/2, TCP, or other protocols.

Advantages include strong, explicit interfaces, type safety, and potential performance benefits due to compact binary protocols. Challenges encompass latency and partial failures, versioning and evolving contracts, and increased coupling between client and server. RPCstyle is often contrasted with REST, which emphasizes resources and uniform interfaces rather than procedures.

Design considerations for RPCstyle include handling timeouts and retries, security and authentication, streaming or bidirectional communication, and backward compatibility during evolution of interfaces. It is well suited for high-performance microservices with clearly defined service boundaries, whereas loosely coupled or publicly exposed web APIs may favor alternative styles.