remote procedure call (OSI) (RPC)

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a session-layerprotocol developed by Sun Microsystems for the Network File System( NFS) and enables a remote invocation of a procedure. Remote Procedure Call allows clients to invoke procedures on a remote server.

Under this concept, each server on the network provides a number of services that can be requested using the RPC procedure. These functions are implemented as procedures of a program and can be addressed by specifying the server address, the program number and the procedure number. Since server and client use different address spaces, the transmitted parameters must be converted.

The server supporting RPC services receives requests from clients on which the application is processed locally. When the server receives an RPC request from the client, it executes a local procedure. After the procedure is finished, it transfers the results to the client and waits for the next requests. To ensure security aspects, the client must identify itself to the server. This authorization also extends to the use of other files.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is application-oriented and relies on the UDP protocol or the TCP protocol. Remote Procedure Call is an IETF specification and described in RFC 1831.