Phase 0 Overview
What to expect in Phase 0
In Phase 0, we will go through the basic networking conecpts that are essential for building eXpServer.
File structure
All the code associated with the project will be contained in a directory named expserver.
As we go through the documentation, we will be asked to create directories and files with specific names. It is recommended to follow the mentioned convention in order to maintain consistency.
Phase 0 initial file structure
Introduction
To get a clear understanding of what we are going to do, we need to setup a foundation of the basics. So, let us start from the beginning.
Imagine a situation where we launch a web browser and navigate to a website. In this scenario, the browser acts as a client, sending a request to access the website, while the content of the website is provided by a server.
We call this the client-server model or the client-server architecture.
- Client: A system that uses remote services provided by a server. They initiate communication with servers by sending requests for specific services or data.
- Server: A system that provides services to other systems in a network. They typically run continuously and are designed to handle requests from multiple clients simultaneously. Read more about servers below.
When someone says the word server, we immediately get a picture of huge datacentres with lots computers, expensive hardware, wires and blinking lights. But in reality, server is just a program that is running on a computer. The term “server” just describes the role or the purpose of what the program does.
A server's role is to provide data or services requested by ‘someone’. That someone is a client, which again is just a program, that initiates communication by asking the server for what it needs. When a client requests something, the server fulfils the request by providing the requested data or service.
INFO
The computers in huge datacentres are different. Their size is primarily due to the high traffic that these servers (programs) need to handle. To manage the high volume of traffic effectively, the servers require more computing power and bandwidth.
In this project we will be using the TCP/IP procotol suite for seting the server.
The underlying communication between the devices is taken care by network sockets. They enable bidirectional data flow, allowing processes to send and receive data over a network connection. We will extensively use sockets while writing eXpServer.