Network Architectures
Centralized
Decentralized
Distributed
Centralized Network
Example: Wikipedia, Bank Branch.
Centralized systems have a core/single authority that controls the system and dictate the truth for other participants in the network.
Only privileged users can access the history of transactions or confirms new one.
Only privileged users can access the history of transactions or confirms new one.
Advantages:
- Consistent and efficient.
- Affordable, requires less infrastructure support.
Disadvantages:
- Users need to give up control of their data.
- Single point of failure.
- Limited scalability and bandwidth.
Decentralized Network
Example: Bitcoin.
Decentralized systems have no core/single authority to control the system or dictate the truth for other participants in the network.
Every participant in the network can access the history of transactions or confirms new one.
Every participant in the network can access the history of transactions or confirms new one.
Advantages:
- Anonymity and Privacy.
- High scalable, and bandwidth is never an issue.
Disadvantages:
- More machines are needed to support the system, high cost.
Distributed Network
Example: Google, Facebook, Netflix.
Distributed systems are similar to decentralized in not having a single point of control over the system since computation is spread across multiple components. Users privileges can be enabled when needed.
Advantages:
- Fault tolerant, no single point of failure
- High scalable.
Disadvantages:
- High maintenance cost.
- More difficult to deploy and mange.