Chapter 6 – Architectural Design
Lecture 1
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Topics covered
Architectural design decisions
Architectural views
Architectural patterns
Application architectures
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Software architecture
The design process for identifying the sub-systems
making up a system and the framework for sub-system
control and communication is architectural design.
The output of this design process is a description of the
software architecture.
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Architectural design
An early stage of the system design process.
Represents the link between specification and design
processes.
Often carried out in parallel with some specification
activities.
It involves identifying major system components and
their communications.
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The architecture of a packing robot control
system
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Architectural abstraction
Architecture in the small is concerned with the
architecture of individual programs. At this level, we are
concerned with the way that an individual program is
decomposed into components.
Architecture in the large is concerned with the
architecture of complex enterprise systems that include
other systems, programs, and program components.
These enterprise systems are distributed over different
computers, which may be owned and managed by
different companies.
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Advantages of explicit architecture
Stakeholder communication
Architecture may be used as a focus of discussion by system
stakeholders.
System analysis
Means that analysis of whether the system can meet its non-
functional requirements is possible.
Large-scale reuse
The architecture may be reusable across a range of systems
Product-line architectures may be developed.
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Architectural representations
Simple, informal block diagrams showing entities and
relationships are the most frequently used method for
documenting software architectures.
But these have been criticised because they lack
semantics, do not show the types of relationships
between entities nor the visible properties of entities in
the architecture.
Depends on the use of architectural [Link]
requirements for model semantics depends on how the
models are used.
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Box and line diagrams
Very abstract - they do not show the nature of
component relationships nor the externally visible
properties of the sub-systems.
However, useful for communication with stakeholders
and for project planning.
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Use of architectural models
As a way of facilitating discussion about the system
design
A high-level architectural view of a system is useful for
communication with system stakeholders and project planning
because it is not cluttered with detail. Stakeholders can relate to
it and understand an abstract view of the system. They can then
discuss the system as a whole without being confused by detail.
As a way of documenting an architecture that has been
designed
The aim here is to produce a complete system model that shows
the different components in a system, their interfaces and their
connections.
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Architectural design decisions
Architectural design is a creative process so the process
differs depending on the type of system being
developed.
However, a number of common decisions span all design
processes and these decisions affect the non-functional
characteristics of the system.
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Architectural design decisions
Is there a generic application architecture that can be
used?
How will the system be distributed?
What architectural styles are appropriate?
What approach will be used to structure the system?
How will the system be decomposed into modules?
What control strategy should be used?
How will the architectural design be evaluated?
How should the architecture be documented?
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Architecture reuse
Systems in the same domain often have similar
architectures that reflect domain concepts.
Application product lines are built around a core
architecture with variants that satisfy particular customer
requirements.
The architecture of a system may be designed around
one of more architectural patterns or ‘styles’.
These capture the essence of an architecture and can be
instantiated in different ways.
Discussed later in this lecture.
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Architecture and system characteristics
Performance
Localise critical operations and minimise communications. Use
large rather than fine-grain components.
Security
Use a layered architecture with critical assets in the inner layers.
Safety
Localise safety-critical features in a small number of sub-
systems.
Availability
Include redundant components and mechanisms for fault
tolerance.
Maintainability
Use fine-grain, replaceable components.
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Architectural views
A logical view, which shows the key abstractions in the
system as objects or object classes.
A process view, which shows how, at run-time, the
system is composed of interacting processes.
A development view, which shows how the software is
decomposed for development.
A physical view, which shows the system hardware and
how software components are distributed across the
processors in the system.
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Architectural patterns
Patterns are a means of representing, sharing and
reusing knowledge.
An architectural pattern is a stylized description of good
design practice, which has been tried and tested in
different environments.
Patterns should include information about when they are
useful and when they are not useful.
Patterns may be represented using tabular and graphical
descriptions.
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Layered architecture
Used to model the interfacing of sub-systems.
Organises the system into a set of layers (or abstract
machines) each of which provide a set of services.
Supports the incremental development of sub-systems in
different layers. When a layer interface changes, only the
adjacent layer is affected.
However, often artificial to structure systems in this way.
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The Layered architecture pattern
Name Layered architecture
Description Organizes the system into layers with related functionality
associated with each layer. A layer provides services to the
layer above it so the lowest-level layers represent core services
that are likely to be used throughout the system. See Figure 6.6.
Example A layered model of a system for sharing copyright documents
held in different libraries, as shown in Figure 6.7.
When used Used when building new facilities on top of existing systems;
when the development is spread across several teams with
each team responsibility for a layer of functionality; when there
is a requirement for multi-level security.
Advantages Allows replacement of entire layers so long as the interface is
maintained. Redundant facilities (e.g., authentication) can be
provided in each layer to increase the dependability of the
system.
Disadvantages In practice, providing a clean separation between layers is often
difficult and a high-level layer may have to interact directly with
lower-level layers rather than through the layer immediately
below it. Performance can be a problem because of multiple
levels of interpretation of a service request as it is processed at
each layer.
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A generic layered architecture
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The architecture of the LIBSYS system
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Key points
A software architecture is a description of how a software
system is organized.
Architectural design decisions include decisions on the
type of application, the distribution of the system, the
architectural styles to be used.
Architectures may be documented from several different
perspectives or viewssuch as a conceptual view, a
logical view, a process view, and a development view.
Architectural patterns are a means of reusing knowledge
about generic system architectures. They describe the
architecture, explain when it may be used and describe
its advantages and disadvantages.
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A client–server architecture for a film library
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