The client-server model
The client-server reference models demonstrated a standard way for data to communicate between two nodes. Of course, by now, we all know that not all nodes are created equal. Even in the earliest Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) days, there were workstation nodes, and there were server nodes with the purpose of providing content to other workstation nodes.
These server nodes typically have higher hardware specifications and are managed more closely by engineers. Since these nodes provide resources and services to others, they are appropriately referred to as servers. Servers typically sit idle, waiting for clients to initiate requests for their resources. This model of distributed resources that are requested by the client request is referred to as the client-server model.
Why is this important? If you think about it for a minute, the importance of networking is greatly highlighted by this client-server model. Without the need to transfer services between clients and servers, there is not a lot of need for network interconnections. It is the need to transfer bits and bytes from the client to the server that shines a light on the importance of network engineering. Of course, we are all aware of how the biggest network of them all, the Internet, has been transforming the lives of all of us and is continuing to do so.
You might be asking, how can each node determine the time, speed, source, and destination every time they need to talk to each other? This brings us to network protocols.
