What is a decentralized network?

H

hasbeen

My understanding of TCP/IP is that the network is based on the client/server model.
Can someone point me to some type of networking scheme which can run on top or over TCP/IP that would allow two remote clients apps communicate with each other without a server?

Btw, I don't hear much about the self healing neural networks and fuzzy logic concepts anymore. I wonder what happened to that hypetech? :))
 
The eDonkey Network (also known as the eDonkey2000 network or eD2k) is a decentralized, mostly server-based, peer-to-peer file-sharing network
 
The "client" on an edonkey tells the server what to download or look for. It's the "server" part that does the actual downloading. There are (or were) no centralized servers.
 
SirDice said:
The "client" on an edonkey tells the server what to download or look for. It's the "server" part that does the actual downloading. There are (or were) no centralized servers.
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What's the difference between a server and centralized server(s) or what the server(s) do. In every case "the server" is always involved. How can individual nodes on the network find each other and function without servers which support switches, routers, and all other transfer and control protocols?
 
An application that uses connect(2) is a "client", it connects to the other end listen(2), which is the "server". The distinction gets very blurry when an application uses both listen(2) (to receive incoming connections) and connect(2) (for outgoing connections).

Decentralized simply means there's no central server(s) to arbitrate the communication between the various components.
 
hasbeen said:
My understanding of TCP/IP is that the network is based on the client/server model.
Can someone point me to some type of networking scheme which can run on top or over TCP/IP that would allow two remote clients apps communicate with each other without a server?

Btw, I don't hear much about the self healing neural networks and fuzzy logic concepts anymore. I wonder what happened to that hypetech? :))
Click to expand...

Wrong understanding WRT TCP/IP...It is NOT inherently a client/server architecture, but just peer-to-peer. To better understand you need to read up on the ISO 7layer network model (has nothing to do with Taco Bell 7layer burritos)...each layer provides a service level in the communications. TCP/IP is a suite of protocols that exist at layer 3 (network layer) in the stack. client/server occupies layers above that.

And when you are an expert in TCP/IP I could really use some help implementing delay/disruption tolerant networking using NASAs ION implementation of RFC7191. ;)
 
kent_dorfman766 said:
Wrong understanding WRT TCP/IP...It is NOT inherently a client/server architecture, but just peer-to-peer. To better understand you need to read up on the ISO 7layer network model (has nothing to do with Taco Bell 7layer burritos)...each layer provides a service level in the communications. TCP/IP is a suite of protocols that exist at layer 3 (network layer) in the stack. client/server occupies layers above that.

And when you are an expert in TCP/IP I could really use some help implementing delay/disruption tolerant networking using NASAs ION implementation of RFC7191. ;)
Click to expand...
Your knowledge of TCP/IP network topology layers and burrito layers analogy exceed my level of comprehension 🙄
 
I don't know about completely server-less, though, there's ones that only use a server for the handshake and initialization, then drop the server, to allow communication directly between clients. Jingle is one, where the XMPP server part is dropped once the connection is made, then Jingle communicates directly from client to client. IAX2 might be one. The server helps prevent spoofing and other man in the middle attacks. Probably not the full answer you're looking for, but it may be one of the best ways.
 
Here are two examples. You may wish to google them.

Decentralized is the Internet, based on TCP/IP.

A centralized network is IBM's SNA/SDLC used on their mainframes when I worked on them. It was a hierarchical network.

The internet is not hierarchical.

A centralized network is controlled and managed by a central node. An IBM 3705 or 3725 (you can google these) controlled the SNA network.

The Internet uses various peers to route traffic. Those peers could be routers, like Cisco routers, or computers acting as routers, like FreeBSD.

In an SNA network if you knock out the communications controller (3705 or 3725), your network no longer functions.

In the Internet, knock out a router and the network will still route packets (to varying degrees).
 
Other than stating that decentralized networks use multiple authorities serving as a centralized hub, but also include master nodes, makes me wonder who is in control of such network and what happens when things go wrong, whom do you call for help? 😁

And then word salad like this from experts makes things even more confusing:

A decentralized network is a network configuration where there are multiple authorities serving as a centralized hub for participants. In the computing world, a decentralized network architecture distributes workloads among several machines instead of relying on a single central server. Each of these separate machines serves as a mini central unit that interacts independently with other nodes. As a result, even if one of the master nodes crashes or is compromised, the other servers can continue providing data access to users, and the overall network will continue to operate with limited or zero disruption.

Mixture of unevenly distributed computing resources among nodes acting as servers in decentralized network running chaotic TPC/IP protocols 😁
 
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