Does communication style have anything to do with coupling?

Short answer is Yes and let’s discuss it in more details.

First of all, we need to agree on the definition of loosely and tightly coupling.

Coupling refers to the degree of interdependence between components, modules and services in a system. It refers to the extent to which changes to one component will affect other components in the system.

Coupling can range from tight coupling, where components are highly dependent on each other, to loose coupling, where components are relatively independent. The good goal is to create systems with low coupling, as it makes the components more reusable and easier to modify.

Or simple terms, coupling is a measure of how connected or interdependent different parts of a system are with each other. The more connected (blocking) the parts are, the higher the coupling.

 

Now let’s get back to effect of communication style on coupling.

In a request-response communication style, components are tightly coupled because a request from one component requires a response from another component (Blocking). The request-response model creates a tight coupling between the sender and receiver, as the sender must wait for a response from the receiver before it can continue processing. This can lead to a high degree of coupling, which can make it difficult to modify components in the future.

On the other hand, event-driven communication style are typically used to reduce coupling between components. In an event-driven system, components communicate by sending and receiving events, rather than making direct requests to each other (non-Blocking). It decouples the sender and receiver, as the sender does not need to wait for a response from the receiver and also makes it easier to modify or reuse components in the future, as changes to one component will not necessarily affect other components.

In general, event-driven communication is considered to be a more flexible and scalable approach than request-response communication, as it reduces coupling between components and makes it easier to modify and reuse components.

However, it is good to note the best approach will depend on the specific requirements of the project, such as complexity, performance, scalability, and consistency since we cannot use these two communication styles interchangeably.