Question

Andile is a young, qualified computer science engineer and an aspiring entrepreneur who is planning to open what he calls a Computer Game Shack. It is essentially a medium-sized open room with ample space to house twelve to fifteen machines which he wants to stage for the purposes of pay-per-play computer gaming.
Andile envisages a powerful server to stand between the game clients and the games database. Single player games are priced differently than adversarial games in which two or more players are playing against each other. A player or players order a game at a check-out point where they receive a coupon with log in credentials securely generated by the server. The coupon will also specify the title of the game bought and the length of time the game has been purchased for. Players can purchase games for any length of time during which they can re-initiate the game as many times as is permissible within their purchased time slot. The time slot purchased is also extensible.
Andile needs twelve to fifteen client machines for the players. These machines should be networked to accommodate for adversarial game playing scenarios in which two players are playing against each other on two different machines.
Andile can choose any server operating system for his client/server network. This can be Unix, Linux, Windows, etc. He has to make a choice in terms of the client operating system as well. Further, he must choose an affordable database system. There are many database systems ranging from Oracle, SAP as well as some extremely reliable open source options which he can use.
Having read the above business case, answer all the questions which follow:
a. Elaborate on what a server is. (6 marks)
b. Elaborate on what a client is in a network environment. (6 marks)
c. Provide an explanation of the client/Server architecture. (8 marks)

Answer 1

Reviewing the above scenario, there is a server that provides gaming to the users within a given time slot. And clients/users can choose their options and modes for the game.

Having looked at all of these scenarios, here are the answers to questions:

(a) A server is a high-end configured architecture that has multiple storage and graphics in it. Server is divided into two parts: hardware components and the software components(os, database, etc.)

So, in the hardware section, when a server is set up there should be good management physically. Like the space should be well managed and the cables also organized. There a cooling system always be managed. Since it is for gaming purposes, it will require more cooling and more power-consuming instead of normal hosting servers. For backup, there is always power resources. A high-end processor is needed with a good cache memory and good clock speed.

In another scenario, after setting up the hardware components and connections we need to set up the server to available for users or clients. So a Linux platform has better performance than windows but provides a lower graphical user interface. But nowadays this problem also can be resolved. A database to keep data and a web server(maybe Apache, Nginx or some more available on different platforms).

The console can be customized according to the requirement by the administrator.

So, in simple words, a server is alike service provider for a local domain or remotely. Here the server is providing gaming services to the clients.

(b) In another perspective of the server-client scenario, a client is the one who avails the services that a server provides in its network. For a client, it is necessary to be in the network of server as a legitimate entity.

So, a client is a user with a limited number of privileges for some time. This time is calculated by a cost that the administrator decides while configuring the server. Here in gaming architecture, a client is a user, paying some money to play a game in the desired mode(single or multiple) for some time.

(c) In the client-server architecture, there always two ends within a network. The server is like a service provider and the client is a user of it. Here server is proving gaming having multiple options like

• How much time do you want to play?
• In which mode do you want to play?
• Which game is playing today?
• Do you want to sign-in for the game or not?
• Single or Multi-player mode etc.

While a user/client answering these questions and according to requirement and the pay scale with time provides information to the server, then the server runs a query on it to process all required options. Then the server provides whatever a client wants.

The system having client defines the complete system (server).