Systems architecture

About: Systems architecture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17612 publications have been published within this topic receiving 283719 citations. The topic is also known as: system architecture.

Architecture-based performance analysis applied to a telecommunication system

Abstract: Software architecture plays an important role in determining software quality characteristics, such as maintainability, reliability, reusability, and performance. Performance effects of architectural decisions can be evaluated at an early stage by constructing and analyzing quantitative performance models, which capture the interactions between the main components of the system as well as the performance attributes of the components themselves. The paper proposes a systematic approach to building layered queueing network (LQN) performance models from a UML description of the high-level architecture of a system and more exactly from the architectural patterns used for the system. The performance model structure retains a clear relationship with the system architecture, which simplifies the task of converting performance analysis results into conclusions and recommendations related to the software architecture. The proposed approach is applied to a telecommunication product for which an LQN model is built and analyzed. The analysis shows how the performance bottleneck is moving from component to component (hardware or software) under different loads and configurations and exposes some weaknesses in the original software architecture, which prevent the system from using the available processing power at full capacity due to excessive serialization.

A reference architecture for Web browsers

Abstract: A reference architecture for a domain captures the fundamental subsystems common to systems of that domain as well as the relationships between these subsystems. Having a reference architecture available can aid both during maintenance and at design time: it can improve understanding of a given system, it can aid in analyzing tradeoffs between different design options, and it can serve as a template for designing new systems and re-engineering existing ones. In this paper, we examine the history of the Web browser domain and identify several underlying phenomena that have contributed to its evolution. We develop a reference architecture for Web browsers based on two well known open source implementations, and we validate it against two additional implementations. Finally, we discuss our observations about this domain and its evolutionary history; in particular, we note that the significant reuse of open source components among different browsers and the emergence of extensive Web standards have caused the browsers to exhibit "convergent evolution".

Information management for engineering design

Abstract: 1 Computer-Aided Design Tools and Systems.- 1.1 What is Design?.- 1.2 What is Computer-Aided Design?.- 1.3 Computer-Aided Design Tools.- 1.3.1 Synthesis Tools.- 1.3.2 Analysis Tools.- 1.3.3 Information Management Tools.- 1.4 The Design of Complex Artifacts.- 1.5 Failure of Current CAD Systems.- 1.6 Structure of the Book.- 2 Survey of Engineering Design Applications.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Basic Terms.- 2.3 Kinds of Engineering Design Applications.- 2.3.1 VLSI Design Environment.- 2.3.1.1 Multidisciplinary Design: Architecture, Logic, Layout.- 2.3.1.2 Design Methodologies: Hierarchical Approach.- 2.3.1.3 The Computing Environment for Design: Dispersed Computation.- 2.3.2 Software Engineering Environment.- 2.3.2.1 Multiple Representations: Source, Object, Runable Code.- 2.3.2.2 Design Methodology: Modular Programming.- 2.3.2.3 Configurations and Engineering Changes.- 2.3.3 Architectural/Building Design Environment.- 2.3.3.1 Pipe Design System: Sequential Execution of Applications Programs.- 2.3.3.2 Multidisciplinary Design: Piping and Structures.- 2.4 Requirements for Engineering Data Management.- 2.5 Why Commercial Databases are NOT like Design Databases.- 2.6 Previous Approaches for Design Data Management.- 3 Design Data Structure.- 3.1 Example: The Representation Types of a VLSI Circuit Design.- 3.2 Design Data Models.- 3.2.1 Relations (The VDD System).- 3.2.2 A Design Data Manager (SQUID).- 3.2.3 Complex Objects (System-R).- 3.2.4 Abstract Data Types (Stonebraker).- 3.2.5 Semantic Data Model (McLeod's Event Model).- 3.3 Summary.- 4 The Object Model.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 What are Design Objects?.- 4.3 Interfaces: How to Use a Cell Without the Details?.- 4.4 Composition and Interface.- 4.5 Complete Example of Object Specification.- 4.6 Objects Implemented as Structured Files.- 5 Design Transaction Management.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Design Computing Environment: Implications for Data Management.- 5.3 Conventional Transactions in the Design Environment.- 5.4 Concurrency Control Issues.- 5.5 Recovery Issues.- 5.6 Design Transaction Model.- 5.7 Extensions to the Transaction Model.- 5.8 Related Work.- 6 Design Management System Architecture.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 System Architecture.- 6.2.1 Storage Component.- 6.2.2 Object System.- 6.2.3 Design Librarian.- 6.2.4 Recovery Subsystem.- 6.2.5 Validation Subsystem.- 6.2.6 In-Memory Databases.- 6.2.6.1 Introduction.- 6.2.6.2 Building In-Memory Structures: Complex Object Mapping.- 6.2.6.3 In-Memory Recovery.- 6.2.7 Version and Configuration Management.- 6.2.7.1 Introduction.- 6.2.7.2 Design Administration.- 6.2.8 Design Applications.- 6.2.8.1 Design Browser / Chip Assembler.- 7 Conclusions.- 7.1 Research Directions.- 7.2 Summary.- 8 Annotated Bibliography.

Architecture-Level Dependence Analysis for Software Systems

Abstract: The emergence of formal software architecture description languages provides an opportunity to perform analyses at high levels of abstraction, as well as early in the development process. Previous research has primarily focused on developing techniques such as algebraic and transition-system analysis to detect component mismatches or global behavioral incorrectness. In this paper we motivate the utility and describe the challenges in developing a different kind of analysis for use at the architectural level, namely dependence analysis. Various kinds of dependence analyses have been used widely at the implementation level to aid program optimization, anomaly checking, program understanding, testing, and debugging. However, the languages used for architectural description offer quite different features than the languages for which traditional dependence analysis techniques have been developed. We describe our initial approach to architecture-level dependence analysis and illustrate that approach through a prototype tool we have built, called Aladdin, to automatically perform the analysis.

Symphony: An Integrated Multimedia File System

Abstract: An integrated multimediafile system supports the storage and retrieval of multiple data types. In this paper, we first discuss various design methodologies for building integrated file systems and examine their tradeoffs. We argue that, to efficiently support the storage and retrieval of heterogeneous data types, an integratedfile system should enable the coexistence of multiple data type specific techniques. We then describe the design of Symphony-an integrated file system that achieves this objective. Some of the novel features of Symphony include: a QoS-aware disk scheduling algorithm; support for data type specific placement, failure recovery, and caching policies; and support for assigning data type specific structure tofiles. We discuss the prototype implementation of Symphony, and present results of our preliminary experimental evaluation.