Models of Network Computing:

Network Computing Models

A network can be designed for processing information by either the client or the server. The network model can also be structured in a way that both the client and the server can process information. Depending on this flexibility, network computing models can be of three types:
Centralized network computing model
Distributed network computing model
Collaborative network computing model

Centralized Network Computing Model

In the centralized network computing model, the clients use the resources of high-capacity servers to process information. In this model, the clients are also referred to as dumb terminals with very low or no processing capability. The clients only connect to the server and not to each other. The following figure shows the centralized network computing model:

Distributed Network Computing Model

The distributed network computing model allows all network computers to take part in processing but at their respective ends, separately. This model allows sharing data and services but does not help the other network computers in processing.

In this network model, a processing-intensive task is broken into a subset of tasks and distributed among multiple nodes. The nodes work on their individual subsets of tasks. The following figure shows the distributed network computing model:

Collaborative Network Computing Model

The collaborative network computing model is an advanced distributed computing model. In this model, nodes also share processing capabilities apart from sharing data, resources, and other services. In other words, processes can run on two or more computers. The following figure shows the collaborative network computing model: