System Models
Let's see the distributed system models.
Nature of real-life distributed systems
Real-life distributed systems can differ drastically in many dimensions. These differences depend on factors like the network that deploys them, the hardware they run on, etc.
Thus, we need a common framework to solve problems generically. This way, we don’t need to repeat the reasoning for the different variations of these systems.
Making a generic model
To create a model of a distributed system, we must define several properties it must satisfy. If we prove an algorithm is correct for this model, we can be sure that it’ll also be correct for all the systems that satisfy these properties.
Properties each system follows
The main important properties in a distributed system concern the following:
- How the nodes of a distributed system interact with each other
- How the nodes of a distributed system can fail
Categories of distributed systems
There are two main categories of distributed systems that depend on the nature of communication:
- Synchronous systems
- Asynchronous systems
Synchronous system
A synchronous system is one where each node has an accurate clock, and there is a known upper bound on the message transmission delay and processing time. As a result, the execution is split into rounds. This way, every node sends a message to another node, the messages deliver, and every node computes based on the messages it receives. During this, all nodes run in lock-step.
Asynchronous system
An asynchronous system is one where there is no fixed upper bound on how long it takes for a node to deliver a message, or how much time elapses between consecutive steps of a node. The system nodes do not have a common notion of time and, thus, run at independent rates.
The previous lesson discussed the challenges arising from network asynchrony.
So, it should be clear by now that the synchronous model is much easier to describe, program, and reason about. However, the asynchronous model is closer to real-life distributed systems, such as the Internet, where we cannot control all the components they involve. Also, there are minimal guarantees on the time it takes to send a message between two places.
As a result, most of the algorithms we look at in this course assume an asynchronous system model.
How does network asynchrony contribute to the complexity of distributed systems? Write your answer in the widget below with proper reasoning.