A connection broker is software that links clients and servers or peer clients, commonly used in database connection management and remote desktop virtualization. It plays a vital role in multilevel system architectures and distributive computing architecture, managing connections and communication between machines. In remote desktop virtualization, it authenticates and authorizes the client machine and ensures proper coding and communication between the two machines. In supercomputing, it allocates work and manages connections and disconnections to optimize processing power.
A connection broker is usually a software application that acts as a link between a client and a server or between two or more peer clients. These concepts are primarily used in the areas of database connection management and for implementing remote desktops. The multi-level software architecture uses a connection broker to establish low-cost, short-term connections between machines. Connection brokers play a vital role in remote desktop virtualization in particular. The practice of having an intermediary entity that manages all connections is also widely used in the design of distributive computing architecture.
Developments in software engineering and operating systems have seen the advent of multilevel system architectures. Computer networks composed of such layered systems need connections with multiple layers of abstraction. One layer, for example, manages the physical transfer of packets across the transmission medium, ensuring that each packet reaches its designated destination between network devices. Another layer exclusively handles the communication between applications such as a web browser and a server. Because multilevel systems have many points of contact and can become complex in terms of communicating over a computer network, the existence of an entity such as a connection broker is required.
Remote desktop virtualization allows a user on one machine to control a remotely located computer as if the user were physically present on the remote computer. A connection broker acts as an agent between the client machine and the remote machine, handling a multitude of network activities in the background. The connection broker in desktop virtualization is responsible for authenticating the client machine and authorizing it to control the remote machine. It is also responsible for making sure that the instructions between the host computer and the remote controlled system are properly coded. Remote Desktop Connection Brokers also have the huge job of ensuring that the communication between the two machines is in sync.
Another recently developed approach to supercomputing is distributive computing architecture, which makes heavy use of connection brokers to aid in communication between systems. Many of the latest supercomputers have been designed as grids made up of nodes that intelligently communicate with each other to distribute work. In such scenarios, a connection broker acts as a sort of exchange, allocating work and managing connections and disconnections across the network. Connection brokers also play an important role in supercomputing. An efficient connection broker helps the supercomputing network squeeze as much processing power as possible without wasting central processing unit (CPU) cycles or causing transmission delays.
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