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Client Server Architecture

▪ The clients requests a resource and the
server respond with that resource.
▪ Client-server architecture (client/server) is
a network architecture in which
each computer or process on the network is
either a client or a server.

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Types of Client Server
Architecture
▪ There are three different structures :

▫ Two – Tier Client/Server Structure

▫ Three - Tier Client/Server Structure

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Two – Tier Architecture
▪ The two tier architecture primarily has two
parts, a client tier and a server tier.
▪ The client tier sends a request to the server
tier and the server tier responds with the
desired information.
▪ An example of a two tier client/server structure
is a web server. It returns the required web
pages to the clients that requested them.
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2 – Tier Architecture

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Advantages of Two – Tier
Architecture
Some of the advantages of the two-tier client/server
structure are:
▪ This structure is quite easy to maintain and modify.
▪ The communication between the client and server in
the form of request response messages is quite fast.
Disadvantages of Two - Tier Client/Server Structure
▪ If the client nodes are increased beyond capacity in the
structure, then the server is not able to handle the
request overflow and performance of the system
degrades.
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Advantages of Two – Tier
Architecture
Some of the advantages of the two-tier client/server
structure are:
▪ This structure is quite easy to maintain and modify.
▪ The communication between the client and server in
the form of request response messages is quite fast.
Disadvantages of Two - Tier Client/Server Structure
▪ If the client nodes are increased beyond capacity in the
structure, then the server is not able to handle the
request overflow and performance of the system
degrades.
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Three – Tier Architecture
▪ The three tier architecture has three layers
namely client, application and data layer.
▪ The client layer is the one that requests the
information. In this case it could be the GUI,
web interface etc.
▪ The application layer acts as an interface
between the client and data layer. It helps in
communication and also provides security.
▪ The data layer is the one that actually 8
contains the required data.
3 – Tier Architecture

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Advantages of Two – Tier
Architecture
Some of the advantages of the three-tier
client/server structure are:
▪ The three tier structure provides much better service
and fast performance.
▪ The structure can be scaled according to requirements
without any problem.
▪ Data security is much improved in the three tier
structure.
Disadvantages of Three - Tier Client/Server Structure
▪ Three - tier client/server structure is quite complex due 10
to advanced features.
C-S Architecture
Simple
Isn't it?

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What happens when you type a
URL in a browser and hit enter?

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Topics Covered
Topics covered:
▪ DNS Lookup
▪ TCP/IP
▪ HTTPS/SSL/TLS
▪ Server: Firewall, Load Balancer, Web Server,
Application Server, Database

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▪ The internet is made up of a network of computers
connected to each other
▪ In order to connect and communicate between
computers, they must follow a set of rules, Internet
Protocol(IP), that govern how data is transmitted over
a network.
▪ Every machine on the web has a unique identifier to
distinguish from one another. It’s similar to having a
telephone number or a physical address.

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▪ A typical IP address(IPv4) follows the format of 4 sets of
numbers between 0–255. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
▪ There are a total of 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses
available and
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,45
6 possible IPV6 addresses.
▪ Having to look for the IP address when you want to visit
a webpage will take a lifetime.
▪ So we just type in the domain name we’re familiar with
and let the magical system that is the DNS to take care
of the rest :) 16
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DNS(Domain Name
System)
▪ The Domain Name System is created to keep track of
IP addresses for us so we can enter human-readable
addresses in our browser’s URL bar instead.
▪ To translate from domain name to IP address.
▪ When you type www.google.com in your web browser
and hit enter, the request will be forwarded to a DNS
server. DNS server will then perform a DNS lookup to
locate the corresponding IP address
▪ Nslookup

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DNS
▪ DNS uses a client/server architecture and the DNS
servers are organized in a hierarchical and
distributed fashion.

▪ In order to connect and communicate between

computers, they must follow a set of rules, Internet
Protocol(IP), that govern how data is transmitted over a
network.

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Advantages of Two – Tier
Architecture
▪ And the route in which we take will look similar to a
upside down tree-like structure

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www.google.com
Steps to resolving a
domain name
1. Web browser and OS will first check whether the domain is in their cache. If yes,
done
2. The web browser then will send a request to a DNS resolver. A DNS resolver is a local
server with a central database of DNS nameservers. This DNS resolver will be hosted
with your ISP
3. The resolver will first check its cache. If the IP address for google.com isn’t in its cache
it will forward the query recursively up the to the root servers,
4. Down to the Top Level Domain (TLD) of google.com( .com would be the TLD in this
case), and then down to the authoritative name servers responsible for
www.google.com.
DNS system is organized in an upside down tree-like structure right?
We will go to the top and search downward. First stop is the root servers.
Root servers respond with address to the .com Top-Level Domain(TLD). Top-level domain
just refers to the last chunk of a domain name after the dot symbol. Here we go to
the .com TLD. 21

The resolver then queries .com servers for the authoritative name servers of our
domain, google.com
▪ Authoritative name servers will respond with the
corresponding IP address of www.google.com

▪ But first, it will save this IP to its cache. Caching every

step of the way!

▪ The user’s operating system will also cache this IP

address for reference in the future — in case you want
to visit this website again 
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DNS DONE !! NOW HTTP
▪ The user’s web browser can now
follow HTTP(HyperText Transport Protocol) and
send a GET request to the server at google.com’s
corresponding IP address.

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HTTP
▪ HTTP is the protocol used to transfer data to and from
the website.

▪ WWW is the identifier that indicates that it is a web site

and it uses the HTTP protocol.

▪ HTTP://anything.com, WWW.anything.com,
HTTP://WWW.anything.com leads to the same site.

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HTTP & TCP
1. Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) is an
application layer protocol used for transmitting files/data
across the web through TCP/IP sockets
2.TCP(Transmission Control Protocol) resides in the
transport layer and is responsible for creating a reliable
end-to-end connection between two hosts. It’s similar to
a messenger.
3. Allows data transfers of other protocols(like HTTP). TCP
will break the data down into smaller packets and then
reassemble them at the other end.
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 Analogy of picking up cookies from
grandma’s house
1. IP would be the road on which we drive
2. TCP would be the car
3. And HTTP would be the box of cookies moving from one location to another

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TCP/IP
1. HTTP relies on TCP to establish a reliable connection between client and
server. Four pieces of information are needed to establish a TCP
connection:

Client IP address
Client Port number
Source IP address
Source Port number

An IP address will identify the device, but a port number is also needed to
identify the specific application/service.
It’s similar to having an address to an apartment and a specific unit number.
IP + port number = socket
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HTTP protocol uses port 80 as default
SSL (HTTPS)
• Client say Hello
• Server says Hello(do you have certificate? I am SSL)
• Client generated symmetric key
• Server verify the key
• Once verification is successful
•  Secure data transfer

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Firewall
1. TCP network breaks data into chunks (packets). Along with data, a packet
will have a header including control information such as source address,
destination address, connection state, etc.
2. Protect (a network or system) from unauthorized access with a firewall

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Load Balancer, WebServer, Application
Server and Database
1. Load Balancer: The job of a load balancer is to…. balance loads.
2. WebServers: Web servers supply the web content for web browsers; what the browser requests,
the web server delivers through Internet network connections.
3. Application servers host and execute applications and can be used to communicate and extract
data from a database
4. Database: A database is a data repository that stores information

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