Operating Systems

Lecture 12
Communicating over a Network
Read Ch 4.6

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.1 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Recall IPC

 Interprocess communication (IPC) accomplished by

message passing.

 Direct Communication: Processes identify each

other by name.

 Indirect communication: Processes use a mailbox or

a port.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.2 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Communication over a network
 Communication between processes over a network is
accomplished with sockets.

 A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication.

 Communication consists between a pair of sockets.

 A socket is the concatenation of IP address and port

number.

 The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on

host 161.25.19.8

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.3 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Client-Server Architecture

 The server "listens" to a specified port for incoming

client requests.
 When a request is received, the server accepts the
connection from the client socket.
 "Well known" port numbers:
 telnet: 23
 ftp: 21
 http: 80
 All ports numbers below 1024 are considered well
known. They are used for standard services.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.4 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Example
Suppose there is a client process on host machine, X, with IP
address, 146.86.5.20

The client contacts a web server at IP address, 161.25.19.8.

Question: What is the port number for the server?

Host, X, assigns the client a port, e.g. 1625.

Result: Connection between 2 sockets:

Client on host X Web Server:
146.86.5.20:1625 Q: What is this socket?

Packets of information travel between the hosts and are

delivered to the appropriate process by way of the port.
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002
Operating System Concepts 4.5 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Socket Communication

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.6 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Implementation in Java

 Java provides a Socket class for establishing

communication. (This makes is easier to implement
than in C/C++)
 Example: Implementation of a time-of-day server
 Clients request the time of day from the server
 The server listens to port 5155 (could choose
any port number above 1024).

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.7 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Server Side Application
public class Server {
public static void main( String [ ] args) {
Socket client = null; //will hold socket for client
PrintWriter pout = null; //allows easy communication
ServerSocket sock = null; //Holds server socket
...
sock = new ServerSocket(5155); //Port for server socket
while (true) { //Listen for requests
client = sock.accept( ); //Waits for client to contact (blocked)
//accept( ) returns socket from client
//PrintWriter allows easy communication through socket
pout = new PrintWriter(client.getOutputStream( ), true);
pout.println(new java.util.Date().toString()); //write time of day to
//client
pout.close();
client.close();
...
}
}
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002
Operating System Concepts 4.8 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Client Side Application
public class Client {
public static void main(String[ ] args) {
InputStream in = null; //for input stream from socket
BufferedReader bin = null; //for reading in from socket
Socket sock = null; //socket for contact with server
...
sock = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 5155); //server socket

in = sock.getInputStream( ); //Set up for reading

bin = new BufferedReader(new inputStreamReader(in));

String line; // Holds input line

while ((line = bin.readln( )) != null) //read to end
System.out.println(line); //print out line
...
}
}
//(Note: IP address 127.0.0.1 indicates the local host)
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002
Operating System Concepts 4.9 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Remote Procedure Calls

 Remote procedure call (RPC) abstracts procedure calls

between processes on networked systems.
 Messages are well structured (not just data packets).
 Addressed to RPC daemon listening to a port on the
remote system.
 Contain identifier of function to be executed.
 Contain parameters to pass to that function.
 The port is identified by a number at the start of the message
packet.
 A system has one network address, but may have many
ports.
 To request a specific service, must address message to the
proper port.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.10 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Invoking an RPC
 Invoking a procedure on a remote host is the same as invoking one
locally (The details are hidden).
 Stubs – client-side proxy for the actual procedure on the server.
 Procedure for executing a remote procedure call:
 The client invokes the remote procedure
 The RPC system calls the stub, passing it the parameters provided
in the procedure call.
 The client-side stub locates the port on the server.
 The stub marshalls the parameters. (Packages them into a form
that can be sent over the network).
 The stub transmits a message to the server using message passing.
 The server-side stub receives this message, unpacks the marshalled
parameters, and performs the procedure on the server.
 If necessary, return values are passed back to the client.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.11 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Which Port to Use?

 With ordinary procedure calls there is a binding between

the name of the procedure and the address of the
procedure.
 With an RPC, there is binding between the client and
server ports.
 How does the client know which port to use?
 Predetermined binding: RPC has fixed port address.
 Dynamic binding: O.S. provides a matchmaker daemon
(rendezvous daemon) on a fixed RPC port.
 The client sends a message to the matchmaker and
requests the port address of the RPC.
 The matchmaker returns the port number.
 The RPC call is sent to that port.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.12 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Execution of RPC

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.13 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Remote Method Invocation
 Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is a Java mechanism
similar to RPCs.
 RMI allows a Java program on one machine to invoke a
method on a remote object.
 RMI works between Java Virtual Machines. Could be two
JVM's on the same machine or on different machines.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.14 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 RPC vs. RMI

Difference between an RPC and an RMI:

RPC RMI

Procedural: Object Based:

Only allows procedures Can invoke a method on
or functions to be called. a remote object.

Parameters: Ordinary Parameters: Can pass

data structures objects as parameters.

Allows for distributed

Java applications

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.15 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Process for RMI

1. A stub on the client machine is invoked.

2. The stub sends a parcel with the name of the method
and the marshalled parameters.
3. A skeleton on the server unmarshall's the parameters
and invokes the method.
4. The skeleton marshall's the return value into a parcel
and returns it to the client.
5. The stub on the client unmarshall's the return value
and passes it to the client.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.16 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005
 Marshalling Parameters

Example: Client invokes someMethod(A, B) on a Server object.

The method returns a boolean object.

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne 2002

Operating System Concepts 4.17 Modified for CSCI 399, Royden, 2005