# Does preCICE communicate via a central server?

**URL:** <https://precice.discourse.group/t/does-precice-communicate-via-a-central-server/24>\
**Category:** Using preCICE\
**Tags:** faq\
**Created:** [September 23, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://precice.discourse.group/t/does-precice-communicate-via-a-central-server/24 "2019-09-23T20:41:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fsimonis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/precice.discourse.group/fsimonis/32/6_2.png) [@fsimonis](https://precice.discourse.group/u/fsimonis)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://precice.discourse.group/t/does-precice-communicate-via-a-central-server/24/1 "2019-09-23T20:41:55Z")

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When coupling parallel participants, does preCICE use a central instance, such as a server, to handle communication?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fsimonis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/precice.discourse.group/fsimonis/32/6_2.png) [@fsimonis](https://precice.discourse.group/u/fsimonis)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://precice.discourse.group/t/does-precice-communicate-via-a-central-server/24/2 "2019-09-23T20:43:59Z")

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No.

preCICE determines which parallel instances of both participants have to communicate and connects them.

This results in a purely parallel peer-to-peer communication.