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"Distributed" vs "Decentralized systems"
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| What is the difference between distributed and decentralized systems?
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| Lew Pitcher 2004-09-17, 8:59 pm |
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dd wrote:
> What is the difference between distributed and decentralized systems?
As I understand it, a distributed system consists of a single component
that provides a service, and one or more external system that access the
service. Think of this as a hub and spoke design, where the hub is the
central service and the endpoints of the spokes are the external systems.
OTOH, a decentralized system consists of many external systems that talk
to each other. Think of this as a fishing net design, where each knot
represents an independant system, and the lines between the knots
represent the communications channels between systems.
The difference is that with a distributed system (as above), if you
break the hub, you break the system. OTOH, if you break one of the
systems in a decentralized system, you've only lost one element, and not
the whole system.
- --
Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group
(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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| dd wrote:
> What is the difference between distributed and decentralized systems?
If I used the terms distinctively, I'd used them both to mean "a network of
nodes, each running some part of a problem on its CPU." Then a "distributed"
system is one where I can find a single node, remove it, and disable the
entire system. A "decentralized" system would not have a center, so removing
any node could not affect the others. It might still affect the total
result.
What context did you hear the words?
--
Phlip
http://industrialxp.org/community/b...tUserInterfaces
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| Bradley K. Sherman 2004-09-18, 3:57 am |
| In article <414b0a12$0$20127$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, <dd> wrote:
>What is the difference between distributed and decentralized systems?
Six of one, half-dozen of the other.
--bks
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| Andrew Gabb 2004-09-18, 3:58 pm |
| I think of a distributed system as one where the functionality
*depends* on more than one node performing, ie there is no
single/central node/server which provides the functionality. To me
this implies *spread* of functionality.
A decentralised system (I'd say) is one where the performance does
not depend on a single/central node/server. Multiple regional
mirrors might be used to achieve this, but it is not necessarily
'distributed'.
The difference is subtle and the terms are probably used more or
less interchangeably by many.
Andrew
Lew Pitcher wrote:
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> Hash: SHA1
>
> dd wrote:
>
>
>
> As I understand it, a distributed system consists of a single component
> that provides a service, and one or more external system that access the
> service. Think of this as a hub and spoke design, where the hub is the
> central service and the endpoints of the spokes are the external systems.
>
> OTOH, a decentralized system consists of many external systems that talk
> to each other. Think of this as a fishing net design, where each knot
> represents an independant system, and the lines between the knots
> represent the communications channels between systems.
>
> The difference is that with a distributed system (as above), if you
> break the hub, you break the system. OTOH, if you break one of the
> systems in a decentralized system, you've only lost one element, and not
> the whole system.
>
> - --
>
> Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
> Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group
>
> (Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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> =Wk58
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--
Andrew Gabb
email: agabb@tpgi.com.au Adelaide, South Australia
phone: +61 8 8342-1021, fax: +61 8 8269-3280
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| Sean Cleary 2004-09-23, 8:56 am |
| bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) wrote in message news:<cig3t1$d0h$1@panix2.panix.com>...
> In article <414b0a12$0$20127$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>, <dd> wrote:
>
> Six of one, half-dozen of the other.
>
> --bks
are you a Prisoner of your defination?
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| Richard Quinn 2004-09-23, 3:58 pm |
| On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 02:00:14 +1000, <dd> wrote:
>What is the difference between distributed and decentralized systems?
>
Is this an exam question :) ?
Distributed systems: store state across different networked nodes.
Decentralized systems: distributed systems with no root, or
coordinating server.
---
richard.quinn@ieee.org
www.richard-quinn.com
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