Distributed Systems Scalability

Clients Load Balancer Node Replication Shard Coordinator Network

Select a component

Click any component to learn about its role in distributed systems scalability.

Conceptual Model: This diagram shows a distributed system as a "logical computer" — nodes act like compute units, network like buses, coordinator like a leader for ordering and agreement.

Traffic Simulation

Visualize request flow through the system

Network latency: 50 ms

Higher latency = slower request flow

0ms LAN • 50ms normal • 150ms cross-region • 300ms painful

Nodes: 1

Selected: Node 1

Dead nodes stop receiving traffic.

Load balancer spreads traffic across nodes (round-robin)

Network partition:

ON = Network cannot reach Shard (simulated split brain condition).