Communication Patterns in Distributed Systems

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Arjit Sharma
01 Min

Data Serialization & Deserialization

Serialization is the process of converting data structures into a format suitable for transmission or storage. Deserialization is the reverse process.

Common Serialization Formats:

  • JSON (Javascript Object Notation) - Human readable widely used in web APIs but is larger in size.
  • Protobuf - Binary format developed by Google, requires a schema but is efficient and compact.

Data Transfer Models

Determines how data is sent between distributed components.

1. Synchronously (Request-Response Model)

It is HTTP-based(REST, gRPC) where client sends a request and waits for response. It can cause latency issues.

2. Asynchronous (Message Driven Model)

It uses message queues (RabbitMQ, Kafka) or event logs where Producer sends a message without waiting for a response and consumer keeps processing messages at its own pace.

Communication Models

  1. Point-to-Point (P2P) Direct communication between 2 entities

  2. Publish-Subscribe (Pub-Sub) Decoupled communication: Publishers send messages, and subscribers receive them based on topics.

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