🛰️RPC

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Also known as: Remote Procedure Call, Distributed Call

A communication paradigm where a program invokes procedures on a remote system as if local.

DESCRIPTION

RPC enables code in one process to call procedures in another process, often across a network, abstracting transport and serialization. It relies on interfaces (IDLs), stubs, and marshalling for type-safe calls. Modern frameworks like gRPC use HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers for efficient, bi-directional streaming. RPC is popular for low-latency microservice communication and strongly-typed contracts. It contrasts with REST’s resource orientation and with event-driven asynchronous messaging.

ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONS

Wikipedia

In distributed computing, a remote procedure call (RPC) is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located in another computer in a network without having to understand network details.

Emphasizes abstraction from underlying networking details.

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Cloudflare

A remote procedure call (RPC) is a communication method used by programs to request a service from a program located on another computer on a network.

Highlights RPC as a communication method and its distributed nature.

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gRPC

gRPC is a modern open source high performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework that can run in any environment.

Positions RPC in the context of a high-performance, language-agnostic framework.

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RELATED TERMS

gRPC Apache Thrift Interface Definition Language Protocol Buffers HTTP-2 Serialization Microservices Service Discovery Load Balancing

COMPETING TERMS

REST Queue

RELATIONS

• Narrower: Apache Thrift Arrow Flight

KNOWLEDGE AREAS

Software Engineering Data Integration & Interoperability Real-time & Streaming Data

TARGET AUDIENCE

Software Developer Data Engineer DevOps Engineer Cloud Architect AI Engineer

EXTERNAL SOURCES

• Wikipedia - Remote procedure call
• gRPC - gRPC overview and RPC fundamentals
• Apache Thrift - Cross-language RPC framework and IDL

TOP QUESTIONS

When should I use RPC (Remote Procedure Call) over REST?

Use RPC for low-latency, strongly typed interactions and streaming. It fits internal microservice calls needing high performance and contract-first development.

Category: Alternatives

What are common mistakes with RPC in microservices?

Tight coupling via brittle interfaces and insufficient backward compatibility are common. Neglecting timeouts, retries, and circuit breakers causes cascading failures.

Category: Mistakes

What serialization formats are typical in modern RPC?

Protocol Buffers and Avro are common for compact, schema-driven serialization. JSON is used for simplicity but is less efficient.

Category: Implementation

How does RPC affect service versioning?

RPC IDLs require explicit versioning and compatibility policies. Evolving schemas carefully prevents breaking changes in clients and servers.

Category: Management

What risks come with RPC-based architectures?

Increased coupling, chatty communication, and harder observability can emerge. Network failures must be first-class considerations.

Category: Risks

Is gRPC the same as RPC?

gRPC is a specific modern RPC framework using HTTP/2 and Protobuf. RPC is the broader paradigm.

Category: Misunderstanding

Can RPC support streaming?

Yes. Frameworks like gRPC support client, server, and bidirectional streaming for efficient real-time pipelines.

Category: Example

How do I monitor RPC calls effectively?

Instrument with tracing (OpenTelemetry), metrics (latency, error rate), and structured logs. Propagate context across service boundaries.

Category: BestPractice

What is a hot topic around RPC today?

Service meshes and HTTP/3/QUIC transport are extending RPC performance and reliability with advanced traffic policies.

Category: Topic