Overview of gRPC

gRPC is an open-source remote procedure call (RPC) framework developed by Google. It enables client-server communication between applications over HTTP/2 using Protocol Buffers as the serialization mechanism. In this lesson, we will provide a high-level overview of gRPC, its key features, and how it compares to other RPC frameworks.

What is gRPC?

An RPC (remote procedure call) framework is a communication protocol that allows a computer program to call procedures on another computer or server in a network, as if it were a local procedure call. It enables different processes or systems to communicate with each other across a network boundary, abstracting away the complexities of network communication.

gRPC is a modern RPC framework developed by Google that uses Protocol Buffers for data serializationData serialization is the process of converting complex data structures or objects into a format suitable for storage or transmission, facilitating transfer across networks or between different systems by converting them into a byte stream or text format.. It enables client-server communication between applications over HTTP/2, which provides better performance and scalability than HTTP/1.1. gRPC supports multiple programming languages, including Java, Python, Go, C++, Ruby, and more. It uses a service definitionService definition is a specification in gRPC that defines the remote procedures (methods) a client can call on a server, along with the input and output message types. to define the methods that can be called remotely, which simplifies the development process.

The "g" in gRPC

gRPC is a project of Google, so people naturally assume that the "g" in gRPC stands for Google. However, this is not the case. In every release of gRPC, the meaning of the letter "g" changes. The gRPC documentation lists the different meanings "g" has had since its inception in 2015.

Key features of gRPC