Remote Procedure Call

In computer science, a remote procedure call (RPC) is an inter-process communication that allows a computer program to cause a subroutine or procedure to execute in another address space (commonly on another computer on a shared network) without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction. That is, the programmer writes essentially the same code whether the subroutine is local to the executing program, or remote. When the software in question uses object-oriented principles, RPC is called remote invocation or remote method invocation.

Many different (often incompatible) technologies can be used to implement the concept.

Internet protocols
Application layer
  • DHCP
  • DHCPv6
  • DNS
  • FTP
  • HTTP
  • IMAP
  • IRC
  • LDAP
  • MGCP
  • NNTP
  • NTP
  • POP
  • RPC
  • RTP
  • RTSP
  • SIP
  • SMTP
  • SNMP
  • SOCKS
  • SSH
  • Telnet
  • TLS/SSL
  • XMPP
  • (more)
Transport layer
  • TCP
  • UDP
  • DCCP
  • SCTP
  • RSVP
  • (more)
Routing protocols *
  • BGP
  • OSPF
  • RIP
  • (more)
Internet layer
  • IP
    • IPv4
    • IPv6
  • ICMP
  • ICMPv6
  • ECN
  • IGMP
  • IPsec
  • (more)
Link layer
  • ARP/InARP
  • NDP
  • Tunnels
    • L2TP
  • PPP
  • Media access control
    • Ethernet
    • DSL
    • ISDN
    • FDDI
  • (more)
* Not a layer. A routing protocol belongs either to application or network layer.

Read more about Remote Procedure Call:  History and Origins, Message Passing, Other RPC Analogues

Famous quotes containing the words remote and/or call:

    Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.
    Fred, Sir Hoyle (b. 1915)

    Let’s call something a rigid designator if in every possible world it designates the same object, a non-rigid or accidental designator if that is not the case. Of course we don’t require that the objects exist in all possible worlds.... When we think of a property as essential to an object we usually mean that it is true of that object in any case where it would have existed. A rigid designator of a necessary existent can be called strongly rigid.
    Saul Kripke (b. 1940)