ZeroRPC for .NET

ZeroRPC is a .NET standard library designed to enable seamless communication between multiple applications using the ZeroMQ Dealer-Router pattern. It provides an elegant, attribute-based approach to defining remote methods and namespaces, making it easy to invoke server-side methods directly from client applications via interfaces.

This library offering lightweight, fast, and customizable Remote Procedure Call (RPC) functionality. With ZeroRPC, developers can focus on building distributed systems without worrying about the complexities of communication protocols.

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Features

• Attribute-Based RPC: Use [RemoteMethod], [RemoteService], and [RemoteExecutionRule] attributes to define remote methods and namespaces.
• ZeroMQ Dealer-Router Pattern: Leverages ZeroMQ for high-performance, asynchronous messaging.
• Timeout Rules: Configure timeout and retry logic for remote method calls.
• Seamless Integration: Easily integrate with .NET dependency injection for both clients and servers.
• Task and Void Support: Automatically handles return types, including void and Task.
• Async Operations: Supports asynchronous method calls for non-blocking operations.
• Fire & Forget: Send messages without waiting for a response.
• Exception Handling: Propagates server-side exceptions back to the client.
• Serialization: Uses JSON for serialization and deserialization of method arguments and responses.
• .NET Framework and .NET Core Support: Compatible with both .NET Framework and .NET Core applications.

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Installation

Install the library via NuGet:

dotnet add package ZeroRPC.NET

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Getting Started

1. Define Remote Interfaces and Methods

Use the [RemoteService], [RemoteMethod] and [RemoteExecutionRule] attributes to define your remote interfaces and methods.

//Client Interface
[RemoteService("IMyService","MyApp")]
public interface IMyService
{
    [RemoteExecutionRule(timeoutMillisecond: 5000)]
    Task<string> GetDataAsync(int id);

    void SendMessage(string message);
}

//Server Interface
namespace MyApp;
public interface IMyService
{
    [RemoteMethod("GetDataAsync")]
    Task<string> GetDataAsync(int id);

    [RemoteMethod("SendMessage")]
    void SendMessage(string message);
}

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2. Implement Server-Side Logic

Implement the interface on the server side.

public class MyService : IMyService
{
    public Task<string> GetDataAsync(int id)
    {
        return await find(id);
    }

    public void SendMessage(string message)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Message received: {message}");
    }
}

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3. Setup the Server

Register the server and bind it to a port.

var services = new ServiceCollection();
var cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();

services.AddSingleton<IExampleService, ExampleService>();
// Register ZeroRPC server to DI
services.AddZeroRpcServer();

var serviceProvider = services.BuildServiceProvider();
var server = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<ZeroRpcServer>();

server.RunZeroRpcServer(new ConnectionConfiguration("*", 5556), cancellationTokenSource.Token);

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4. Setup the Client

Register the client and connect to the server.

services.AddZeroRpcClient<IExampleService>(new ClientConfiguration()
{
    Connection = new ConnectionConfiguration("127.0.0.1", 5556, ProtocolType.Tcp),
    DefaultTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15)
});

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Advanced Features

Timeout for Queries

Use [RemoteExecutionRule] to configure retries and timeouts for remote method calls.

[RemoteExecutionRule(timeoutMillisecond: 10000)]
string GetDataAsync(int id);

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Exception Handling

ZeroRPC propagates server-side exceptions back to the client. You can handle exceptions as follows:

try
{
    var data = await client.GetDataAsync(999);
}
catch (ZeroRpcException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"RPC Error: {ex.Message}");
}

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Example Code

Server

var services = new ServiceCollection();

services.AddSingleton<IExampleService, ExampleService>();

services.AddZeroRpcServer();

var serviceProvider = services.BuildServiceProvider();

var server = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<ZeroRpcServer>();
server.RunZeroRpcServer(new ConnectionConfiguration("*", 5556));

Console.ReadLine();

Client

var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddZeroRpcClient<IExampleService>(new ClientConfiguration());

var serviceProvider = services.BuildServiceProvider();
var client = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IMyService>();

var data = await client.GetDataAsync(42);
Console.WriteLine(data);

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Example Project

Run both ZeroRPC.Client and ZeroRPC.Server inside examples folder projects using:

dotnet run

How It Works

ZeroRPC uses the ZeroMQ Dealer-Router pattern for communication:

1. Client: Sends requests to the server using a DealerSocket asynchronously.
2. Server: Listens for incoming requests using a RouterSocket asynchronously.
3. Attributes: Define namespaces, methods, and execution rules for remote calls.
4. Serialization: Arguments and responses are serialized using JSON.
5. Fire & Forget: Do not wait for response for the methods that has return type of "void" or "Task"
6. Request TTL: Server doesn't process incoming requests if the timeout reached (client not listening for respnose anymore)
7. Exception Handling: Server-side exceptions are propagated back to the client.
8. Dependency Injection: ZeroRPC integrates with .NET's built-in dependency injection for easy service registration and resolution.
9. Asynchronous: All methods are asynchronous by default, allowing for non-blocking operations.
10. Multiple Protocols: Support for multiple protocols (TCP, IPC, etc.) in the same application.

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Benchmark (via BenchmarkDotNet v0.14.0)

Apple M1 Pro, 1 CPU, 10 logical and 10 physical cores

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Median	Gen0	Allocated
WaitAndReturn	302.21 us	5.758 us	13.906 us	296.31 us	0.4883	3.1 KB
WaitAndReturnAsync	302.85 us	6.002 us	12.790 us	297.97 us	0.4883	3.86 KB
MultipleParameter	305.07 us	5.885 us	11.888 us	303.22 us	0.4883	3.2 KB
WaitAndReturnModelAsync	300.77 us	6.006 us	8.614 us	298.94 us	0.4883	4 KB
FireAndForgetAsync	77.88 us	1.421 us	1.187 us	77.59 us	0.2441	2.21 KB

Run time: 00:03:03 (183.33 sec), executed benchmarks: 5

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find a bug or want to add a feature, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

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License

ZeroRPC is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Links

• ZeroMQ Documentation
• NetMQ

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Example Repository

Check out the example repository for a full implementation of ZeroRPC: ZeroRPC Example

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Roadmap

• Adding more and more unit tests.
• Add support for streaming RPC calls.
• Improve error handling and logging.
• Optimize serialization/deserialization performance.
• Add more examples and documentation.

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Feel free to copy and adapt this README for your GitHub repository!