Network Application Architectures

Before we start off with application layer protocols, it’s important to understand how applications are structured across end systems. This is called the network application’s architecture and it’s designed by application developers. The architecture lays out how the application communicates and with what.

Let’s discuss some common application architectures.

Client-Server Architecture

In this architecture, a network application consists of two parts: client-side software and server-side software. These pieces of software are generally called processes, and they communicate with each other through messages.

Servers

The server process controls access to a centralized resource or service such as a website.

Servers have two important characteristics:

1. Generally, an attempt is made to keep servers online all the time, although 100% availability is impossible to

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