cross posting what I wrote as a comment in the article:<p>epmd is a separate process, yes. But an erlang node connects to epmd in order to register it&#x27;s name on it. It will bind a socket to talk with epmd (probably among other things)..
See also: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;apps&#x2F;erts&#x2F;erl_dist_protocol.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;apps&#x2F;erts&#x2F;erl_dist_protocol.html</a>