What is the purpose of a Remote Procedure Call (RPC)?

The purpose of a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is to enable systems to execute instructions on other hosts. RPC is a powerful tool in distributed computing that allows a program to cause a procedure (subroutine) to execute in another address space (commonly on another computer on a shared network) as if it were a local procedure call. This abstraction simplifies the complexity involved in network communication and allows software developers to create networked applications without needing to understand the intricacies of the underlying networking protocols.

When a client calls an RPC, it sends a request to a server, which processes the request as if it were handling a local call and returns the result to the client. This capability is crucial in many modern applications, especially in microservices architecture and client-server models, where different services need to interact seamlessly over a network. The real power of RPC lies in its ability to hide the details of the communication process from the programmer, facilitating the development of sophisticated distributed systems.