The architecture of fRPC is based on the standard Server/Client model that a lot of other RPC frameworks are follow. The idea is that the Client makes a connection with the Server, and then sends a structured request. Based on the request type, the Server runs a handler that then returns a response or an error. The Server then forwards that response object (or the error) back to the Client.

From the perspective of the Client, they have simply called a function and received a response. The fact that the request is serialized and transmitted to the Server is hidden for simplicity.

To dig into how the underlying architecture of both the Server and Client work, it is first important to understand that the underlying Frisbee protocol does not have any notion of a request or response. When Frisbee sends a Packet of data, it does not wait for a response. This makes the protocol suitable for a number of use cases (like real-time streaming), but also means that Request/Reply semantics need to be implemented in the application logic - in this case, the code that fRPC generates.

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Server Architecture

The generated fRPC Server is based on the RPC Services that are defined in the proto3 file that is passed to the protoc compiler. Developers are responsible for implementing the generated Service interfaces and passing that into the Server constructor.

The Server then takes that implementation and creates a handler table that maps the request type to the accompanying function in the provided Service implementation.

When it receives a request, it looks up the request type in the handler table and calls the accompanying function with the deserialized Request object. The function then returns a Response object that is serialized and sent back to the Client.

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Client Architecture

The generated fRPC Client is also based on the RPC Services that are defined in the proto3 file that is passed to the protoc compiler. Based on the RPC Calls defined in those services, fRPC generates a number of Client helper functions - one for each possible RPC Call.

As mentioned before, Frisbee does not have any notion of a request or response - this means that we must implement the ability to wait for a response from the Server in the application logic. We need to also be able to map those incoming responses to the correct ongoing request.

To achieve this, fRPC Clients make use of an in-flight requests table that maps a request ID to a channel that can be listened to for a response. When an RPC function is called, it generates a request ID, serializes the request object and sends it to the Server. When a response object is received from the Server, it is deserialized and request ID is looked up in the in-flight requests table.

The response is then pushed into the channel associated with the request ID, where it is read by the RPC function that made the request in the first place. This response unblocks the RPC caller and the response object (or an error) is returned.