Post on 23-Jan-2017
Ivano Malavolta
Introduction to
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
Roadmap
Definitions and concepts
Architectural styles
Some contents of this part of lecture extracted from Henry Muccini’s lecture on software architecture at the University of L’Aquila (Italy)
Definitions and concepts
Outline
Definitions
Static descriptions
Dynamic descriptions
Why software architecture?
Context
© David Garlan, lecture @GSSI, a.y., 2013/2014
Context
© David Garlan, lecture @GSSI, a.y., 2013/2014
Context
© David Garlan, lecture @GSSI, a.y., 2013/2014
Context
© David Garlan, lecture @GSSI, a.y., 2013/2014
Refresh
Example: software architecture
The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components, the externally visible properties of those components and the relationships among them
L. Bass, P. Clements, R. Kazman, Software Architecture In Practise, Addison Wesley, 1998
System
subsystem Subsystem
component component component
Software Architecture definitionsPerry and Wolf, ’92 (aspects):–“Architecture is concerned with the selection of architectural elements, their interactions, and the constraints on those elements and their interactions necessary to provide a framework in which to satisfy the requirements and serve as a basis for the design.”–Elements are divided into processing elements, data elements and connection elements
Garlan and Shaw, ’93 (elements):– Architecture for a specific system may be captured as “a collection of computational components - or simply components - together with a description of the interactions between these components - the connectors -”
Sommerville, 7th edition, ’04 (process):– The design process for identifying the sub-systems making up a system and the framework for sub-system control and communication is architecturaldesign. The output of this design process is a description of the SA.
Develop systems “architecturally”
– Design at an architectural level of abstraction
– Build systems compositionally from parts
– Assure that the system will satisfy critical requirements before it is constructed
– Recognize and reuse standard architectures patterns & styles
– Reuse codified architectural design expertise à reduce costs through product-lines
If you think good architecture is expensive,
try bad architecture.
... Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder
In general terms…SA describes (in a more or less “formal” notation) how a system is structured into components and connectors…
– Components– Connectors
– Channels and Ports
… and how these components interact
– Scenarios
– State Diagrams–…
SA Structure (topology)
SA Dynamics (behavior)
Outline
Definitions
Static descriptions
Dynamic descriptions
Why software architecture?
ComponentsA component is a building block that is– A unit of computation or a data store, with an interface specifying the services it provides and requires– A unit of deployment
– A unit of reuse• e.g., client, server, database, filters, ...
C1S1S2S3
S’xS’Y
provided services
required services
Example
Components vs Objects
The level of abstraction is usually different
• Size– Objects tend to be small
– Components can be small (one object) or large (a library of objects or a complete application)
• An architectural component may be implemented by several objects
• Lifecycle – Objects are created and destroyed constantly
– Components are created and destroyed infrequently
ConnectorsA connector is a building block that enables interaction among components– Events
– Client/server middleware
–Messages and message buses– Shared variables
– Procedure calls (local or remote)– Pipes
Connectors may be implicit or explicit– Connectors sometimes are just channels
– Connectors sometimes have their own logic and complexity
Components and Connectors
A component is (or should be) independent of the context in which it is used to provide services
A connector is (or should be) dependent on the context in which it is used to connect components
Connectors sometimes are modeled as special kinds of components
Interfaces
An interface is the external connection of a component (or connector) that describes how to interact with it
Provided and required interfaces are important
Spectrum of interface specification– Loosely specified (events go in, events go out)– API style (list of functions)– Very highly specified (event protocols across the interface in
CSP)
Example
GUI
FeedServiceFeedService
CommonAction
NewsFeederAction
AdminAction
Factory
FeedDelegatePOJOs
NewsFeederDAO FeedDAO
NewsFeederDAO FeedDAO
FeedDelegate
Transfer Object
ValidatorService
NewsFeederDelegatePOJOs
NewsFeederDelegate
Browser(html
javascript)
Web Services
DATABASE
TrasformationValidation
BusinessFactory
ValidationService
BusinessExtensionIn
BusinessExtensionOut
PresentationExtensionOut
PresentationExtensionIn
Outline
Definitions
Static descriptions
Dynamic descriptions
Why software architecture?
SA dynamics
The SA dynamics is expressed in terms of component interactions via connectors
- Labeled Transition Systems
- Automata- UML StateCharts, Sequence Diagrams, Activity Diagrams
- State Diagrams
- Message Sequence Charts
- …
Customer Interface
Customer Process
Web Server
Customer Server
Order Server
Cart Server
Catalog ServerDelivery OrderProcess
SA Static Description
An example : e-commerce system
SA Dynamic Description : Browse Catalogue Sequence Diagram
CustomerInterface
Registered Customer
CustomerProcess CatalogServer
Catalog DBInvolved
BrowseCatalogBrowseCatalog
ReadStatus
Catalog Page
Output Page
Catalog Info
An example : e-commerce system
CustomerInterface
Registered Customer
CustomerProcess CartServer
PlaceOrderReqPlaceOrder
ReadStatus
Cart DBInvolved
pageOrderOutputPage
Order DBInvolved
OrderServer
EmptyCart
Cart DBInvolved
CustomerServer
ReadInfoCustomerDB Involved
DeliveryOrderProcess
createNewOrder
OrderInfo
newOrder
CartInfo
CustomerInfo
OrderInfo
SA Dynamic Description : Place Order Sequence Diagram (success)
An example : e-commerce system
SA Dynamic Description : Place Order Sequence Diagram (empty cart)
CustomerInterface
Registered Customer
CustomerProcess CartServer
PlaceOrderReqPlaceOrder
ReadStatus
Cart DBInvolved
errorPageOutputPage
emptyCart
An example : e-commerce system
Outline
Definitions
Static descriptions
Dynamic descriptions
Why software architecture?
Advantages of explicit architecture
System analysis– Analysis of the system before it has been built– Costs saving and risks mitigation
Large-scale reuse– The architecture (or part of it) may be reusable across a range
of systems– Design decisions reuse à saves design costs + less risks
Stakeholders communication– Architecture may be used as a focus of discussion by system
stakeholders– Early design decisions reasoning, when it is still relatively easy
to adapt
Architecture and software qualitiesPerformance
– Localise critical operations and minimise communications
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
These are all examples of TACTICS
Tactics
A tactic is a design decision that refines a high level styleand is influential in the control of a quality attribute response
Tactics complement and refine styles that make up the architecture
Design decision Quality attributepromotes tactic
Example: tactics for availability
© David Garlan, lecture @GSSI, a.y., 2013/2014
Tactics may originate conflicts
For example:
• Using large-grain components improves performance but reduces maintainability
• Introducing redundant data improves availability but makes security more difficult
• Localising safety-related features may mean more communication so degraded performance
© Len Bass, Paul Clements, Rick Kazman, Software Architecture in Practice, 3rd edition
Architectural styles
(aka patterns)
Outline
What is an architectural style?
Styles catalogue
What is an architectural style?
An architectural style establishes a relationship between:
• Context
– A recurring situation in the world that gives rise to a problem
• Problem
– The problem, appropriately generalized, that arises in the context
• Solution:– a set of element types
• e.g., data repositories, processes, and objects– a set of interaction mechanisms or connectors
• e.g., method calls, events, or message bus– a topological layout of the components– a set of semantic constraints
Common styles catalogue
• MVC• Publish-subscribe• Layered• Shared-data• Client-server• Peer to peer• Pipes and filters
Model-View-Controller styleContext: User interface software is typically the most frequently modified portion of an interactive application. Users often wish to look at data from different perspectives, such as a bar graph or a pie chart. These representations should both reflect the current state of the data.
Problem: How can user interface functionality be kept separate from application functionality and yet still be responsive to user input, or to changes in the underlying application’s data? And how can multiple views of the user interface be created, maintained, and coordinated when the underlying application data changes?
Solution: The model-view-controller (MVC) style separates application functionality into three kinds of components:
– A model, which contains the application’s data– A view, which displays some portion of the underlying data and
interacts with the user– A controller, which mediates between the model and the view and
manages the notifications of state changes
MVC Example
MVC Solution - 1
The MVC pattern breaks system functionality into three components: a model, a view, and a controller that mediates between the model and the view
• Elements: – The model is a representation of the application data or state, and
it contains (or provides an interface to) application logic– The view is a user interface component that either produces a
representation of the model for the user or allows for some form of user input, or both
– The controller manages the interaction between the model and the view, translating user actions into changes to the model or changes to the view
MVC Solution - 2
Relations: The notifies relation connects instances of model, view, and controller, notifying elements of relevant state changes
Constraints: – There must be at least one instance of each of model, view, and
controller– The model component should not interact directly with the
controller
Weaknesses:– The complexity may not be worth it for simple user interfaces– The model, view, and controller abstractions may not be good fits
for some user interface toolkits
Publish-Subscribe styleContext
– There are a number of independent producers and consumers of data that must interact. The precise number and nature of the data producers and consumers are not predetermined or fixed, nor is the data that they share.
Problem– How can we create integration mechanisms that support the
ability to transmit messages among the producers and consumers so they are unaware of each other’s identity, or potentially even their existence?
Solution– Components interact via announced messages, or events.
Components subscribe to a set of events. – Publisher components place events on the bus by announcing
them; the connector then delivers those events to the subscriber components that have registered an interest in those events.
Publish-Subscribe Solution – 1
Elements: – Any component with at least one publish or subscribe port– The publish-subscribe connector, which will have announce and
listen roles for components that wish to publish and subscribe to events
Relations:– The attachment relation associates components with the publish-
subscribe connector by prescribing which components announce events and which components are registered to receive events
Weaknesses: – Typically increases latency and has a negative effect on scalability
and predictability of message delivery time– Less control over ordering of messages– Delivery of messages is not guaranteed
Publish-subscribe example 1
© Len Bass, Paul Clements, Rick Kazman,
Publish-subscribe example 2
topics nodes
Layered Style (Virtual Machine Example)
Java Virtual Machine
Processor
Operating
System
Java
Virtual Machine
Java
Application
(Virtual Machine Style)
The Layered System Style
A layered system is organized hierarchically, each layer providing service to the layer above and below
• Components– Programs or subprograms deployed in a layer
• Connectors– Protocols
• Procedure calls or system calls
• Stylistic invariants– Each layer provides a service only to the immediate layer “above”
(at the next higher level of abstraction) and uses the service only of the immediate layer “below” (at the next lower level of abstraction)
Layered System Example: OSI Protocol Stack
ApplicationPresentation
SessionTransportNetworkData LinkPhysical
ApplicationPresentation
SessionTransportNetworkData LinkPhysical
NetworkData LinkPhysical
NetworkData LinkPhysical
Layered System Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages– Decomposability: Effective separation of concerns and different
level of abstractions– Maintainability: Changes that do not affect layer interfaces are easy
to make– Adaptability/Portability: Can replace inner layers as long as
interfaces remain the same – Understandability: Strict set of dependencies allow you to ignore
outer layers
Disadvantages– Not all systems are easily structured in a layered fashion– Performance degrades with too many layers– Can be difficult to cleanly assign functionality to the “right” layer
Shared-Data style
ContextVarious computational components need to share and manipulate large amounts of data. This data does not belong solely to any one of those components.
ProblemHow can systems store and manipulate persistent data that is accessed by multiple independent components?
SolutionIn the shared-data pattern, interaction is dominated by the exchange of persistent data between multiple data accessors and at least one shared-data store. Exchange may be initiated by the accessors or the data store. The connector type is data reading and writing.
Shared Data Solution
Elements:
– Shared-data store• Concerns include types of data stored, data
performance-oriented properties, data distribution, and number of accessors permitted
– Data accessor component– Data reading and writing connector
Shared Data Example
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages– Simplicity: Only one connector (the blackboard) that everyone
uses
– Evolvability: New types of components can be added easily
Disadvantages– Blackboard becomes a bottleneck with too many clients
Client-server
• One component is a server offering a service• The other components are clients using the service
• Server implementation is transparent but can be centralized or distributed, single-threaded or multi-threaded– Single interface point with physically distributed implementation– Dynamic, transparent selection from among multiple interface
points
Client/Server Style example
3-tier client-server systems
3-tier client-server systems are a common class of distributed business systems
• First tier: Client (user interface) tier– Presentation logic
• Second (middle, “business logic”) tier: Servers acting as “business objects”, encapsulating abstract, integrated models of multiple, disparate data sources– Computation
• Third (back-end, database) tier: Legacy business applications providing data services– Database
Weaknesses: Substantial up-front cost and complexity
3-Tier Client-server systems (example)
Key
Webbrowser
Sig
nOnF
ilter
*.do
*.screen
MainServlet
TemplateServlet
ScreenJSP
index.jsp
Sign OnNotifier
mappings.xml
screendefinitions.xml
sign-on-config.xml
OrderFacade
EJB tier Back endWeb tierClient tier
CatalogFacade OPC
AdventureCatalog
DB
UserMgmtFacade
OpcOrderTrackingService
OpcPurchaseOrderService
Client-sideapplication
JavaEEfilter
Statelesssessionbean
Java EEapplication
Contextlistener
Datastore
FileServlet
ContainerWeb servicesendpoint
SOAPcall
FileI/O
Javacall
HTTP/HTTPS
JDBC
Peer-to-peer style
Context: need to cooperate and collaborate to provide a service to a distributed community of users
Problem: How can a set of “equal” distributed computational entities be connected to each other via a common protocol so that they can organize and share their services with high availability and scalability?
Solution: components directly interact as peers. All peers are “equal” and no peer or group of peers can be critical for the health of the system. Peer-to-peer communication is typically a request/reply interaction without the asymmetry found in the client-server pattern
Example: Napster
Example: Gnutella
Example: Skype
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages– Interoperability A natural high-level architectural style for
heterogeneous distributed systems– Scalability: Powerful enough server tiers can accommodate many
clients
– Distributability: Components communicate over a network
Disadvantages– Visibility, Maintainability: Difficult to analyze and debug
• Distributed state
• Potential for deadlock, starvation, race conditions, service outages
– Require sophisticated interoperability mechanisms• Data marshalling and unmarshalling• Proxies and stubs for RPC
• Legacy wrappers
Pipe and Filter Pattern
Context: Many systems are required to transform streams of discrete data items, from input to output. Many types of transformations occur repeatedly in practice, and so it is desirable to create these as independent, reusable parts
Problem: Such systems need to be divided into reusable, loosely coupled components with simple, generic interaction mechanisms. The components, being generic and loosely coupled, are easily reused. The components, being independent, can execute in parallel
Solution: The pattern of interaction in the pipe-and-filter pattern is characterized by successive transformations of streams of data. Data arrives at a filter’s input port(s), is transformed, and then is passed via its output port(s) through a pipe to the next filter. A single filter can consume data from, or produce data to, one or more ports
Pipe and Filter SolutionData is transformed from a system’s external inputs to its external outputs through a series of transformations performed by its filters connected by pipes
Elements: – Filter, which is a component that transforms data read on its input port(s) to data
written on its output port(s)– Pipe, which is a connector that conveys data from a filter’s output port(s) to another
filter’s input port(s). A pipe preserves the sequence of data items, and it does not alter the data passing through
Relations: The attachment relation associates the output of filters with the input of pipes and vice versa
Constraints:– Pipes connect filter output ports to filter input ports– Connected filters must agree on the type of data being passed along the
connecting pipe
Pipe-and-filter example
Many similarities between patterns and styles– Goal: packaged engineering experience– Formulation: organization and interaction among “key”
components
Differences:
Architectural styles vs design patterns
Architectural styles Design patterns
few many
large-scale system organization
localized, small-scaledesign solutions
Relationships between tactics and stylesStyles are built from tactics
à if a style is a molecule, a tactic is an atom
MVC, for example utilizes the tactics:– Increase semantic coherence
– Encapsulation– Use an intermediary
– Use run-time binding
What this lecture means to you?
Software architecture is the main instrument for reasoning about
– high level of system design
– system-level properties and qualities• e.g., modularity, evolvability, etc.
– large-scale reuse
Architectural style: reusable pattern – for solving recurrent problems– for obtaining qualities “out-of-the-box”
Suggested readings
1. David Garlan. “Software architecture: a travelogue.” ICSE '14Proceedings of the Conference on The Future of SoftwareEngineering, ACM Press, 2014.
1. Perry, D. E.; Wolf, A. L. (1992). "Foundations for the study of softwarearchitecture". ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 17 (4):40.doi:10.1145/141874.141884.
2. Garlan & Shaw (1994). "An Introduction to Software Architecture".Retrieved 2012-09-13.
References
ContactIvano Malavolta |
Post-doc researcherGran Sasso Science Institute
iivanoo
ivano.malavolta@gssi.infn.it
www.ivanomalavolta.com