RPC (Remote Procedure Call)

A protocol paradigm where a client invokes a function on a remote server as if it were local, abstracting away network communication details. RPC frameworks (gRPC, Thrift, JSON-RPC, XML-RPC) handle serialization, transport, and error propagation transparently. Unlike REST, which models resources, RPC models actions — the client calls a named procedure with arguments and receives a return value. gRPC is the dominant modern RPC framework, built on HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers.