Asynchronous communication basics
Asynchronous communication is communication between a sender and one or multiple receivers, where a sender does not necessarily expect an immediate response to their messages. In the synchronous communication model, which we covered in Chapter 5 Synchronous Communication, the caller sending the request would expect an immediate (or nearly immediate, considering network latency) response to it. In asynchronous communication, it may take an arbitrary amount of time for the receiver to respond to the request, or to not respond at all (for example, when receiving a no-reply notification).
We can illustrate the differences between the two models using two examples. An example of synchronous communication is a phone call – two people having a phone conversation are in direct and immediate communication with each other, and they expect to hear the responses in real time. An example of asynchronous communication is sending mail to people. It can...
