gRPC, a high-performance RPC framework developed by Google, uses Protocol Buffers (protobuf) as its interface definition language. This allows for defining services and message types which are compiled to generate client and server code. gRPC supports multiple programming languages, making it versatile.
In terms of communication, gRPC employs HTTP/2 protocol, enabling bidirectional streaming alongside multiplexing requests over single TCP connections, enhancing performance. It also utilizes binary data format leading to smaller payloads compared to text-based formats like JSON or XML.
What sets gRPC apart is its support for four types of service methods: Unary RPCs where the client sends a request and gets a response; Server streaming RPCs where the client sends a request and receives a stream of responses; Client streaming RPCs where the client sends a stream of messages and gets back a response; and Bidirectional streaming RPCs where both client and server send a stream of messages independently.
