What Is The Client-Server Model?

Date First Published: 11th March 2024

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Data Transmission Technologies

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 5/10

CONTENTS

Advantages and Disadvantages Of The Client-Server Model

Learn more about what the client-server model is in this article.

The client-server model is a model of interaction between a server and a client. The client requests a service or resource from another program, known as the server. When the client requests a connection to the server, the server can either accept it or reject it. If the connection is accepted, the server establishes and maintains a connection with the client over a specific protocol. Once the server fulfils the client's request, the connection is terminated.

Today, interactions that involve the server fulfilling a request made by a client are most common. Most servers have a one-to-many relationship with clients, meaning that a single server can provide resources to multiple clients at once. example, a web server serves web pages, a file server serves computer files, and a mail server sends and receives emails.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of The Client-Server Model

The advantages of the client-server model are:

Administration and maintenance of the important resources that require protection is centrally accessible. This simplifies administration and maintenance of important resources that require protection.
Due to its centralised structure, it is easier to protect data with access rights.
The client/server protocols do not require any specific platforms or operating systems.
It is flexible. The number of clients can easily be expanded at any time and several clients can request resources from the same server at once.

The disadvantages of the client-server model are:

Each server can only handle a certain amount of traffic. If too many clients request data at the same time, the server could become overloaded. This can make it slow and unresponsive.
Due to its centralised nature, failure of the server can lead to the whole system failing. If the server is down, clients can no longer function because they cannot receive the necessary responses from the server.