Interprocess Communications

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 Interprocess Communications
- Exchange of data between two or more separate,
independent processes/threads.
- Operating systems provide facilities/resources for inter-
process communications (IPC), such as message queues,
semaphores, and shared memory.
- Distributed computing systems make use of these
facilities/resources to provide application programming
interface (API) which allows IPC to be programmed at a
higher level of abstraction. (e.g., send and receive)
- Distributed computing requires information to be exchanged
among independent processes.

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 IPC – unicast and multicast
 In distributed computing, two or more processes engage in
IPC using a protocol agreed upon by the processes. A
process may be a sender at some points during a protocol, a
receiver at other points.
 When communication is from one process to a single other
process, the IPC is said to be a unicast, e.g., Socket
communication. When communication is from one process
to a group of processes, the IPC is said to be a multicast,
e.g., Publish/Subscribe Message model, a topic that we
will explore in a later chapter.

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 Unicast vs. Multicast

P 2 P 2 P 3 ... P 4

m
m m m

P 1 P 1

unicast m u ltic ast

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 Interprocess Communications in Distributed
Computing

P ro c ess 1 P ro c ess 2

d a ta

sender r e c e iv e r

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 Operations provided in an archetypal
Interprocess Communications API

• Receive ( [sender], message storage object)

• Connect (sender address, receiver address), for
connection-oriented communication.
• Send ( [receiver], message)
• Disconnect (connection identifier), for
connection-oriented communication.

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 Interprocess Communication in basic HTTP

W e b server

S1 S2 S3 S4
o p e ra tio n s:
H TTP S 1 : a cce p t co n n e ctio n
a proce ss S 2 : re ce ive (re q u e s t)
re qu e st
S 3 : se n d (re s p o n s e )
a n o p e ra tio n Ss43 : d i s c o n n e c t
H TTP
C 1 : m a k e co n n e ctio n
re spon se
C 2 : se n d (re q u e st)
d a ta flo w C 3 : re ce ive (re sp o n se )
C 1 C 2 C 3 C 4
C 4 : disco n n e ct

W e b brow se r

Processing order: C1, S1, C2, S2, S3, C3, C4, S4

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 Event Synchronization
 Interprocess communication may require that the
two processes synchronize their operations: one side
sends, then the other receives until all data has been
sent and received.
 Ideally, the send operation starts before the receive
operation commences.
 In practice, the synchronization requires system
support.

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 Synchronous vs. Asynchronous
Communication
 The IPC operations may provide the synchronization
necessary using blocking. A blocking operation issued by
a process will block further processing of the process
until the operation is fulfilled.
 Alternatively, IPC operations may be asynchronous or
nonblocking. An asynchronous operation issued by a
process will not block further processing of the process.
Instead, the process is free to proceed with its processing,
and may optionally be notified by the system when the
operation is fulfilled.

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 Synchronous send and receive
pro cess 1 process 2
running on host 2
running o n ho st 1
Event Diagram

b lo c k in g r e c e iv e s t a r t s

b lo c k in g s e n d s t a r t s a n o p e r a t io n

e x e c u t io n f lo w
a c k n o w le d g e m e n t o f d a t a r e c e iv e d s u s p e n d e d p e r io d
b lo c k in g s e n d r e t u r n s p r o v id e d b y t h e I P C f a c ilit y b lo c k in g r e c e iv e e n d s

Synchro no us Send and R eceive

Client Server
Sender Receiver
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 Asynchronous send and synchronous
receive
P ro cess 2
P ro cess 1
Event Diagram

b lo c k in g r e c e iv e s t a r t s

n o n b lo c k in g s e n d

o p e r a t io n
e x e c u t io n f lo w
s u s p e n d e d p e r io d
b lo c k in g r e c e iv e r e t u r n s

A synchro no us Send and

Synchro no us R eceive

Client Server
Sender Receiver
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 Synchronous send and Async. Receive - 1
P rocess 2
P rocess 1

b lo c k in g s e n d is s u e d

n o n b lo c k in g r e c e iv e is s u e d
t r a n s p a r e n t a c k n o w le d g e m e n t
p r o v id e d b y t h e I P C f a c ilit y e x e c u t io n f lo w
s u s p e n d e d p e r io d

Synchronous Send and

A synchro no us R eceive
S c e n a r io A

Data from P1 was received by P2

12 before issuing a non-blocking receive op in P2
 Synchronous send and Async. Receive - 2
P rocess 2
P rocess 1

n o n b lo c k in g r e c e iv e is s u e d
a n d r e t u r n e d im m e d ia t e ly
b lo c k in g s e n d is s u e d

in d e f in it e
b lo c k in g e x e c u t io n f lo w
s u s p e n d e d p e r io d

P ro cess 2
P rocess 1 Synchronous Send and
A synchro no us R eceive
S c e n a r io B

Data from P1 arrived to P2 after P2 issued a

13 non-blocking receive op
 Synchronous send and Async. Receive - 3

P rocess 2
P ro cess 1

n o n b lo c k in g r e c e iv e is s u e d
a n d r e t u r n e d im m e d ia t e ly
b lo c k in g s e n d is s u e d
p r o c e s s is n o t if ie d
t r a n s p a r e n t a c k n o w le d g e m e n t o f t h e a r r iv a l o f
p r o v id e d b y t h e I P C f a c ilit y d a ta
e x e c u t io n f lo w
s u s p e n d e d p e r io d

Synchronous Send and

A synchro no us R eceive
S c e n a r io C

Data from P1 arrived to P2 before P2 issues a non-blocking

14 receive op. P2 is notified of the arrival of data
 Asynchronous send and Asynchronous
receive
P ro cess 2
P rocess 1

n o n b lo c k in g r e c e iv e is s u e d
a n d r e t u r n e d im m e d ia t e ly
b lo c k in g s e n d is s u e d
p r o c e s s is n o t if ie d
o f t h e a r r iv a l o f
d a ta
e x e c u t io n f lo w
s u s p e n d e d p e r io d

A synchronous Send and

A synchro no us R eceive
S c e n a r io C

Does P1 need an acknowledgement from P2?

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 Event diagram
Proce ss B
P roce ss A

t im e
req u est 1

respo n se 1

req u est 2
in t e r p r o c e s s c o m m u n ic a t io n
e x e c u t io n f lo w
resp o n se2
p r o c e s s b lo c k e d

E v e n t d i a g r a m fo r a p r o t o c o l

16 Synchronous send and receive

 Blocking, deadlock, and timeouts
 Blocking operations issued in the wrong sequence can cause
deadlocks.
 Deadlocks should be avoided. Alternatively, timeout can be used to
detect deadlocks. P ro c ess 1 P ro c ess 2

r e c e iv e f r o m p r o c e s s 2 is s u e d
p r o c e s s 1 b lo c k e d p e n d in g d a t a
fro m p ro c ess 2 .
r e c e iv e d f r o m p r o c e s s 1 is s u e d
p r o c e s s 2 b lo c k e d p e n d in g d a t a
fro m p ro c ess 1 .

17 P1 is waiting for P2’s data; P2 is waiting for P1’s data.

 Using threads for asynchronous IPC
 When using an IPC programming interface, it is important to note
whether the operations are synchronous or asynchronous.
 If only blocking operation is provided for send and/or receive, then it is
the programmer’s responsibility to using child processes or threads if
asynchronous operations are desired.
proce ss

m a in t h r e a d

new t h r e a d is s u e s a b lo c k in g I P C o p e r a t io n

t h r e a d is b lo c k e d
m a in t h r e a d c o n t in u e s w it h
o t h e r p r o c e s s in g
t h r e a d is u n b lo c k e d a f t e r t h e o p e r a t io n is f u lf ille d

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 Deadlocks and Timeouts
 Connect and receive operations can result in indefinite
blocking
 For example, a blocking connect request can result in the
requesting process to be suspended indefinitely if the
connection is unfulfilled or cannot be fulfilled, perhaps as a
result of a breakdown in the network .
 It is generally unacceptable for a requesting process to
“hang” indefinitely. Indefinite blocking can be avoided by
using timeout.
 Indefinite blocking may also be caused by a deadlock

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 Indefinite blocking due to a deadlock

P roce ss 1 P roce ss 2

" r e c e iv e fr o m p r o c e s s 2 " is s u e d ;
p r o c e s s 1 b lo c k e d p e n d in g d a t a
fro m proce ss 2 .
" r e c e iv e f r o m p r o c e s s 1 " is s u e d ;
p r o c e s s 2 b lo c k e d p e n d in g d a t a
a n o p e ra tio n
fro m pro ce ss 1 .
proce ss
e x e cu tin g
proce ss
blo ck e d

P1 is waiting for P2’s data; P2 is waiting for P1’s data.

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 Data Representation
 Data transmitted on the network is a binary stream.
 An interprocess communication system may provide the
capability to allow data representation to be imposed on the raw
data.
 Because different computers may have different internal storage
format for the same data type, an external representation of data
may be necessary—standard format.
 Data marshalling is the process of (I) flattening a data structure,
and (ii) converting the data to an external representation.
 Some well known external data representation schemes are:
Sun XDR (External Data Representation)
ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One)
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
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 Data Encoding Protocols

le v e l o f a b s t r a c t io n
d a t a e n c o d in g s c h e m e s S a m p le S t a n d a r d s

a p p lic a tio n s p e c if ic d a ta e n c o d in g la n g u a g e X M L :( E x te n s ib le M a r k u p L a n g u a g e )

g e n e r a l d a ta e n c o d in g la n g u a g e
A S N .1 ( A b s tr a c t S y n ta x N o ta tio n )

S u n X D R ( E x te r n a l D a ta R e p r e s e n ta tio n )
n e tw o r k d a ta e n c o d in g s ta n d a r d

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 Sample XML file
http://java.sun.com/xml/docs/tutorial/overview/1_xml.html#intro

 XML is a text-based markup language that is fast

becoming the standard for data interchange on the Web.
 XML has syntax analogous to HTML.
 Unlike HTML, XML tags tell you what the data means,
rather than how to display it.
 Example:
<message>
<to>you@yourAddress.com</to>
<from>me@myAddress.com</from>
<subject>XML Is Really Cool</subject>
<text> How many ways is XML cool? Let me count the ways... </text>
</message>

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 Data Marshalling

" T h is i s a t e s t . "
1 .2 7 .3 -1 .5
1 . f la t t e n i n g o f s t r u c t u r e d d a t a i t e m s
host A m a rsh a llin g
2 . c o n v e r t in g d a t a t o e x t e r n a l ( n e t w o r k )
r e p r e s e n t a t io n
1 1 0 0 1 1 ... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 ...

1 . c o n v e r t d a t a t o in t e r n a l r e p r e s e n t a t i o n
u n m a rsh a llin g
2 . r e b u il d d a t a s t r u c t u r e s .

" T h is is a t e s t . "
-1 .5 E x t e r n a l t o in t e r n a l r e p r e s e n t a t io n a n d v ic e v e r s a
is n o t r e q u ir e d
7 .3 - i f t h e t w o s id e s a r e o f t h e s a m e h o s t t y p e ;
1 .2 - i f t h e t w o s id e s n e g o t i a t e s a t c o n n e c t i o n .

24 host B
 The OSI (Open System Interconnection ) Seven-
layer network architecture

a p p lic a t io n la y e r a p p lic a t io n la y e r

p r e s e n t a t io n la y e r p r e s e n t a t io n la y e r

s e s s io n la y e r
Message
s e s s io n la y e r

t r a n s p o r t la y e r t r a n s p o r t la y e r
Segment
n e t w o r k la y e r
Datagram n e t w o r k la y e r

d a t a lin k la y e r Frame d a t a lin k la y e r

p h y s ic a l la y e r 0/1 p h y s ic a l la y e r

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 Text-based protocols
 Data marshalling is at its simplest when the data
exchanged is a stream of characters, or text.
 Exchanging data in text has the additional advantage
that the data can be easily parsed in a program and
displayed for human perusal. Hence it is a popular
practice for protocols to exchange requests and responses
in the form of character-strings. Such protocols are said
to be text-based.
 Many popular network protocols, including FTP (File
Transfer Protocol), HTTP, and SMTP (Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol), are text-based.

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 Event diagram
P roce ss 2
P roce ss 1

tim e
req u est 1

resp o n se 1

req u est 2
in t e r p r o c e s s c o m m u n ic a t io n
e x e c u t io n f lo w
resp o n se2
p r o c e s s b lo c k e d

E v e n t d i a g r a m fo r a p r o t o c o l

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 Event Diagram for a HTTP session
w eb serv er w eb b ro w ser

r e q u e s t is a m e s s a g e in 3 p a r t s :
req u est
- < c o m m a n d > < d o c u m e n t a d d d r e s s > < H T T P v e r s io n >
- a n o p t io n a l h e a d e r
- o p t io n a l d a t a f o r C G I d a t a u s in g p o s t m e t h o d

resp o n se r e s p o n s e is a m e s s a g e c o n s is t in g o f 3 p a r t s :
- a s t a t u s lin e o f t h e f o r m a t < p r o t o c o l> < s t a t u s c o d e > < d e s c r ip t io n >
- h e a d e r in f o r m a t io n , w h ic h m a y s p a n s e v e r a l lin e s ;
- t h e d o c u m e n t it s e lf .

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 Sequence Diagram
Process A Process B

req u est 1

resp o n se 1

req u est 2

in t e r p r o c e s s c o m m u n ic a t io n
resp o n se 2

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 Sequence diagram for a HTTP session
Process A Process B

req u est 1

resp o n se 1

req u est 2

in t e r p r o c e s s c o m m u n ic a t io n
resp o n se 2

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 Protocol

 In a distributed application, two processes perform

interprocess communication in a mutually agreed
upon protocol.
 The specification of a protocol should include
(i) the sequence of data exchange, which can be
described using a time event diagram.
(ii) the format of the data exchange at each step.

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 HTTP: A sample protocol

 The HyperText Transfer Protocol is a protocol for

a process (the browser) to obtain a document from a
web server process.
 It is a request/response protocol: a browser sends a
request to a web server process, which replies with a
response.

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 The Basic HTTP protocol
w eb serv er w eb b ro w ser

r e q u e s t is a m e s s a g e in 3 p a r t s :
req u est
- < c o m m a n d > < d o c u m e n t a d d d r e s s > < H T T P v e r s io n >
- a n o p t io n a l h e a d e r
- o p t io n a l d a t a f o r C G I d a t a u s in g p o s t m e t h o d

resp o n se r e s p o n s e is a m e s s a g e c o n s is t in g o f 3 p a r t s :
- a s t a t u s lin e o f t h e f o r m a t < p r o t o c o l> < s t a t u s c o d e > < d e s c r ip t io n >
- h e a d e r in f o r m a t io n , w h ic h m a y s p a n s e v e r a l lin e s ;
- t h e d o c u m e n t it s e lf .

W e w ill e x p lo r e H T T P in d e t a ils la t e r t h is q u a r t e r .

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 A sample HTTP session
Script started on Tue Oct 10 21:49:28 2000
9:49pm telnet www.csc.calpoly.edu 80
Trying 129.65.241.20...
Connected to tiedye2-srv.csc.calpoly.edu.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /~mliu/ HTTP/1.0 HTTP Request

HTTP/1.1 200 OK HTTP response status line

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 04:51:18 GMT HTTP response header
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) ApacheJServ/1.0
Last-Modified: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 16:51:54 GMT
ETag: "1dd1e-e27-39e3492a"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 3623
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

<HTML> document content

<HEAD>
<TITLE> Mei-Ling L. Liu's Home Page
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor=#ffffff>
…

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 HTTP Session

1. Telnet to your favorite Web server:

unix> telnet ise.gmu.edu 80

Opens a TCP connection to port 80 at ise.gmu.edu.

(default HTTP server port)

2. Type in a GET HTTP request:

GET /~yhwang1/ HTTP/1.1
Host: ise.gmu.edu

Type above commands and hit carriage return twice, you send this
minimal but complete GET request to HTTP server

3. See what you have in response message sent by HTTP server!

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 IPC paradigms and implementations
Paradigms of IPC of different levels of abstraction have evolved,
with corresponding implementations.

le v e l o f
I P C p a r a d ig m s E x a m p le I P C I m p le m e n t a tio n s
a b s tr a c tio n
r e m o te p ro c e d u re /m e th o d R e m o t e P r o c e d u r e C a ll ( R P C ) , J a v a R M I
socket API U n ix s o c k e t A P I , W in s o c k

d a t a t r a n s m is s io n s e r ia l/ p a r a lle l c o m m u n ic a t io n

UNIX Socket: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/guide/ipc/usock.html

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