In computer science, a remote procedure call (RPC) is client/server system in which a computer program causes a subroutine or procedure to execute in another address space (commonly on another computer on a shared network) without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction. That is, the programmer writes essentially the same code whether the subroutine is local to the executing program, or remote. When the software in question uses object-oriented principles, RPC might be called remote invocation or remote method invocation (RMI).