Network transparency, in its most general sense, refers to the ability of a protocol to transmit data over the
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematic ...
in a manner which is not observable (“
transparent” as in invisible) to those using the applications that are using the protocol. In this way, users of a particular application may access remote resources in the same manner in which they would access their own local resources. An example of this is
cloud storage
Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations), and the physical environment is ty ...
, where remote files are presented as being locally accessible, and
cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
where the resource in question is processing.
X Window
The term is often partially correctly applied in the context of the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...
, which is able to transmit graphical data over the network and integrate it seamlessly with applications running and displaying locally; however, certain extensions of the X Window System are not capable of working over the network.
Databases
In a
centralized database system
A centralized database (sometimes abbreviated CDB) is a database that is located, stored, and maintained in a single location. This location is most often a central computer or database system, for example a desktop or server CPU, or a mainframe c ...
, the only available resource that needs to be shielded from the user is the data (that is, the
storage system). In a
distributed DBMS, a second resource needs to be managed in much the same manner: the
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematic ...
. Preferably, the user should be protected from the network operational details. Then there would be no difference between database applications that would run on the centralized database and those that would run on a distributed one. This kind of transparency is referred to as network transparency or distribution transparency. From a
database management system
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...
(DBMS) perspective, distribution transparency requires that users do not have to specify where data is located.
Some have separated distribution transparency into location transparency and naming transparency.
Location transparency in commands used to perform a task is independent both of locations of the data, and of the system on which an operation is carried out.
Naming transparency means that a unique name is provided for each object in the database.
Firewalls
Transparency in firewall technology can be defined at the networking (IP or
Internet layer) or at the
application layer
An application layer is an abstraction layer that specifies the shared communications protocols and interface methods used by hosts in a communications network. An ''application layer'' abstraction is specified in both the Internet Protocol Su ...
.
Transparency at the IP layer means the client targets the real IP address of the server. If a connection is non-transparent, then the client targets an intermediate host (address), which could be a proxy or a caching server. IP layer transparency could be also defined from the point of server's view. If the connection is transparent, the server sees the real client IP. If it is non-transparent, the server sees the IP of the intermediate host.
Transparency at the application layer means the client application uses the protocol in a different way. An example of a transparent HTTP request for a server:
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: example.org
Connection: Keep-Alive
An example non-transparent HTTP request for a proxy (cache):
GET http://foo.bar/ HTTP/1.1
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
Application layer transparency is symmetric when the same working mode is used on both the sides. The transparency is asymmetric when the firewall (usually a proxy) converts server type requests to proxy type or vice versa.
Transparency at the IP layer does not automatically mean application layer transparency.
See also
*
Data independence
Data independence is the type of data transparency that matters for a centralized DBMS. It refers to the immunity of user applications to changes made in the definition and organization of data. Application programs should not, ideally, be exp ...
*
Replication transparency
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Network Transparency
Telecommunications
Data management