DCE Components:

As mentioned above, DCE is blend of various technologies developed independently and nicely integrated by OSF. Each of technologies forms a components of DCE, the main components of DCE are as follows:

• Thread Package :

  It provides a simple programming model for building concurrent applications. It includes operations to create and control multiple threads of execution in a single process and to synchronize access to global data within the application.

• Remote Procedure Calls(RPC) Facility:

  It provides programmers with a number of powerful tools necessary to build client-server applications. In fact, the DCE RPC facility is the basis for all communication in DCE because the programming model underlying all of DCE is the client-server model. It is easy to use, is network and protocol-independent, provides secure communication between a client and a server, and hides difference in data requirement by automatically converting data to the appropriate forms needed by clients and servers.

• Distributed Time Service(DTS) :

  It closely synchronizes the clocks of all computers in the system. It also permits the use of time values from external time sources, such as those of the U.S National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), to synchronize the clock of the computers in the system with external time. This facility can also be used to synchronize the clock of the computers of one distributed environment with the clocks of computers of another distributed environment.

• Name Services :

  The name services of DCE include the Cell Directory Services (CDS), the Global Directory Service (GDS), and the Global Directory Agent (GDA).

  These services allow resources such as servers, files, devices, and so on, to be uniquely name and accessed in a location-transparent manner.

• Security Service:

  It provides the tools needed for authentication and authorization to protect system resources against illegitimate access.

• Distributed File Services(DFS):

  It provides a system wide file system that has such characteristics as location transparency, high performance, and high availability. A unique feature of DCE DFS is that it can also provide file services to clients of other file systems.

In distributed computing, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) is a standard software technology for setting up and managing computing and data exchange in distributed system. DCE is based on client/server model. Using DCE, developers can design the applications, application users can use applications and data at remote servers.

DCE describes the basic components used for distributed systems and their roles. Each of the components plays an important role in the successful implementation of distributed system. Following are main components of DCE :

Threads Package : It is a simple programming model for building concurrently executing applications. It includes operations to create and control multiple threads of execution in a single process. It also provides the facility to synchronize and access global data within the application.

Remote Procedure Calls(RPC) Facility: The basic form of communication based on client server technology over distributed system is RPC. It is very easy to use, is network and protocol-independent, provides secure communication between a client and a server. It hides differences in data requirement by automatically converting data to the appropriate forms needed by clients and servers.

Distributed Time Service(DTS) : Synchronization is very important in distributed computing environment; hence the DTS is a component which deals with clock synchronization by providing a global clock for all machines which communicate over the internet / Distributed environment.

It also permits the use of time values from external time sources, such as those of the U.S National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), to synchronize the clock of the computers in the system with external time. It is also used to synchronize the clock of the computers of one distributed environment with the clocks of computers of another distributed environment.

Name Services : The name services of DCE include the Cell Directory Services (CDS), the Global Directory Service (GDS), and the Global Directory Agent (GDA). These services allow resources ( Both Hardware and Software) such as servers, files etc. to be uniquely identified and accessed in a location-transparent manner.

Security Service: This component deals with the security of a distributed computing system and secure communication between two processes. It provides the tools needed for authentication and authorization to protect system resources against illegitimate access.

Distributed File Services(DFS): It provides a system wide file system. The basic principles of naming service are location transparency, high performance, and high availability. A unique feature of DCE DFS is that it can also provide file services to clients of other file systems.