VALIDATION OF INTERFACE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Westermann, William Evan | Tanik, Murat M.

Affiliations: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA | University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA

Abstract: In this research, an interface-driven system architecture is validated and then decomposed into interface subsystems. The system is modeled and simulated in order to validate the system architecture prior to design and implementation. In addition to its emphasis on interfaces between components and its partitioning ability, the method presented has the following advantages over other design and analysis techniques: (1) It lays the foundation of interfaces as the primary emphasis of requirements; thus, categorizing the objects to be developed for any design. (2) The method validates an interface-based system architecture by modeling and simulating it, providing feedback at the architectural and requirements levels. (3) It permits the development of subsystems separated by a minimum number of edges and minimum capacity utilization across the cuts. The flows on the edges are based on bits per second as specified in the system requirements.

Keywords: Interface, architecture, simulation, models of computation

Journal: Journal of Integrated Design & Process Science, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 1-17, 2007