Remote Procedure Call

is a technique that allows a program to invoke a procedure or a function on another machine.

Abstracts the details of the communication (protocols, sockets, serialization)
The main components are the client stub, server stub, and communications module.
Client Stub: This is a proxy for the remote function. (marshaling and unmarshalling data)
Server Stub: This is a proxy on the server side for the actual function (unmarshalling and marshaling data).
Communications Module: handles communication, errors, and timeouts.
Pros: modularity, scalability, performance, and reusability; great for distributed solutions.
Cons: Binary protocols can be an issue for some companies (firewalls).
Examples: gRPC, XML-RPC, Java RMI, CORBA, DCOM, SOAP, JSON-RPC, and REST