Distributed Systems Architectures Architectural design for software that executes on more than one processor
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 1
Objectives
To explain the advantages and disadvantages of distributed systems architectures To describe different approaches to the development of client-server systems To explain the differences between client-server and distributed object architectures To describe object request brokers and the principles underlying the CORBA standards
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 2
Topics covered
Multiprocessor architectures Client-server architectures Distributed object architectures CORBA
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 3
Distributed systems
Virtually all large computer-based systems are now distributed systems Information processing is distributed over several computers rather than confined to a single machine Distributed software engineering is now very important
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 4
System types
Personal systems that are not distributed and that are designed to run on a personal computer or workstation. Embedded systems that run on a single processor or on an integrated group of processors. Distributed systems where the system software runs on a loosely integrated group of cooperating processors linked by a network.
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 5
Distributed system characteristics
Resource sharing Openness Concurrency Scalability Fault tolerance Transparency
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 6
Distributed system disadvantages
Complexity Security Manageability Unpredictability
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 7
Design issue Resource identification
Communications
Quality of service
Software architectures
Description The resources in a distributed system are spread across different computers and a naming scheme has to be devised so that users can discover and refer to the resources that they need. An example of such a naming scheme is the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that is used to identify WWW pages. If a meaningful and universally understood identification scheme is not used then many of these resources will be inaccessible to system users. The universal availabilit y of the Internet and the efficient implementation of Internet TCP/IP communication protocols means that, for most distributed systems, these are the most effective way for the computers to communicate. However, where there are specific requirements for performance, reliability etc. alternative approaches to communications may be used. The qualit y of service offered by a system reflects its performance, availabilit y and reliabilit y. It is affected by a number of factors such as the allocation of processes to processes in the system, the distribution of resources across the system, the network and the system hardware and the adaptability of the system. The software architecture describes how the application functionality is distributed over a number of logical components and how these components are distributed across processors. Choosing the right architecture for an application is essential to achieve the desired qualit y of service.
Issues in distributed system design
Distributed systems archiectures
Client-server architectures
Distributed services which are called on by clients. Servers that provide services are treated differently from clients that use services No distinction between clients and servers. Any object on the system may provide and use services from other objects
Distributed object architectures
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 9
Middleware
Software that manages and supports the different components of a distributed system. In essence, it sits in the middle of the system Middleware is usually off-the-shelf rather than specially written software Examples
Transaction processing monitors Data convertors Communication controllers
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 10
Multiprocessor architectures
Simplest distributed system model System composed of multiple processes which may (but need not) execute on different processors Architectural model of many large real-time systems Distribution of process to processor may be preordered or may be under the control of a despatcher
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 11
Ian Sommerville 2000
A multiprocessor traffic control system
Sensor processor Sensor control process
Traffic flow processor
Traffic light control processor Light control process
Display process
Traffic lights Traffic flow sensors and cameras Operator consoles
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 12
Client-server architectures
The application is modelled as a set of services that are provided by servers and a set of clients that use these services Clients know of servers but servers need not know of clients Clients and servers are logical processes The mapping of processors to processes is not necessarily 1 : 1
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 13
A client-server system
c2 c3 c4 c12 c11 c1 s1 s4 c10 c5 s2 c6 s3 c8 c9 Client process Server process
c7
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 14
Computers in a C/S network
c1 CC1 CC2 c2 CC3 c3, c4
s1, s2 SC2
Network
s3, s4 SC1
Server computer
c5, c6, c7 CC4 CC5
c8, c9 CC6
c10, c11, c12
Client computer
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 15
Layered application architecture
Presentation layer
Concerned with presenting the results of a computation to system users and with collecting user inputs Concerned with providing application specific functionality e.g., in a banking system, banking functions such as open account, close account, etc. Concerned with managing the system databases
Application processing layer
Data management layer
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 16
Application layers
Presentation layer
Application processing layer
Data management layer
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 17
Thin and fat clients
Thin-client model
In a thin-client model, all of the application processing and data management is carried out on the server. The client is simply responsible for running the presentation software.
Fat-client model
In this model, the server is only responsible for data management. The software on the client implements the application logic and the interactions with the system user.
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 18
Thin and fat clients
Presentation Thin-client model Client Server Data management Application processing Presentation Application processing Fat-client model Client
Server Data management
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 19
Thin client model
Used when legacy systems are migrated to client server architectures.
The legacy system acts as a server in its own right with a graphical interface implemented on a client
A major disadvantage is that it places a heavy processing load on both the server and the network
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 20
Fat client model
More processing is delegated to the client as the application processing is locally executed Most suitable for new C/S systems where the capabilities of the client system are known in advance More complex than a thin client model especially for management. New versions of the application have to be installed on all clients
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 21
A client-server ATM system
ATM ATM Account server TeleCustomer processing account monitor database ATM
ATM
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 22
Three-tier architectures
In a three-tier architecture, each of the application architecture layers may execute on a separate processor Allows for better performance than a thin-client approach and is simpler to manage than a fatclient approach A more scalable architecture - as demands increase, extra servers can be added
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 23
A 3-tier C/S architecture
Presentation Server Client Application processing Server Data management
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 24
An internet banking system
Client HTTP interaction Web server Client Account service provision SQL query SQL Datab ase server Customer account database
Client
Client
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 25
Use of C/S architectures
Architecture Two-tier C/S architecture with thin clients Applications Legacy system applications where separating application processing and data management is impractical Computationally-intensive applications such as compilers with litt le or no data management Data-intensive applications (browsing and querying) with little or no application processing. Applications where application processing is provided by COTS (e.g. Microsoft Excel) on the client Applications where computationally-intensive processing of data (e.g. data visualis ation) is required. Applications with relatively stable end-user functionalit y used in an environment with well-established system management Large scale applications with hundreds or thousands of clients Applications where both the data and the application are volatile. Applications where data from multiple sources are integrated
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 26
Two-tier C/S architecture with fat clients
Three-tier or multi-tier C/S architecture
Ian Sommerville 2000
Distributed object architectures
There is no distinction in a distributed object architectures between clients and servers Each distributable entity is an object that provides services to other objects and receives services from other objects Object communication is through a middleware system called an object request broker (software bus) However, more complex to design than C/S systems
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 27
Ian Sommerville 2000
Distributed object architecture
o1 S (o1) o2 S (o2) o3 S (o3) o4 S (o4)
Software bus
o5 S (o5)
o6 S (o6)
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 28
Advantages of distributed object architecture
It allows the system designer to delay decisions on where and how services should be provided It is a very open system architecture that allows new resources to be added to it as required The system is flexible and scaleable It is possible to reconfigure the system dynamically with objects migrating across the network as required
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 29
Uses of distributed object architecture
As a logical model that allows you to structure and organise the system. In this case, you think about how to provide application functionality solely in terms of services and combinations of services As a flexible approach to the implementation of client-server systems. The logical model of the system is a client-server model but both clients and servers are realised as distributed objects communicating through a software bus
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 30
Ian Sommerville 2000
A data mining system
Database 1 Integrator 1 Report gen.
Database 2
Visualiser Integrator 2
Database 3 Display
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 31
Data mining system
The logical model of the system is not one of service provision where there are distinguished data management services It allows the number of databases that are accessed to be increased without disrupting the system It allows new types of relationship to be mined by adding new integrator objects
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 32
CORBA
CORBA is an international standard for an Object Request Broker - middleware to manage communications between distributed objects Several implementation of CORBA are available DCOM is an alternative approach by Microsoft to object request brokers CORBA has been defined by the Object Management Group
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 33
Application structure
Application objects Standard objects, defined by the OMG, for a specific domain e.g. insurance Fundamental CORBA services such as directories and security management Horizontal (i.e. cutting across applications) facilities such as user interface facilities
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 34
CORBA application structure
Application objects Domain facilities Horizontal CORBA facilities
Object request broker
CORBA services
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 35
CORBA standards
An object model for application objects
A CORBA object is an encapsulation of state with a welldefined, language-neutral interface defined in an IDL (interface definition language)
An object request broker that manages requests for object services A set of general object services of use to many distributed applications A set of common components built on top of these services
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 36
Ian Sommerville 2000
CORBA objects
CORBA objects are comparable, in principle, to objects in C++ and Java They MUST have a separate interface definition that is expressed using a common language (IDL) similar to C++ There is a mapping from this IDL to programming languages (C++, Java, etc.) Therefore, objects written in different languages can communicate with each other
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 37
Ian Sommerville 2000
Object request broker (ORB)
The ORB handles object communications. It knows of all objects in the system and their interfaces Using an ORB, the calling object binds an IDL stub that defines the interface of the called object Calling this stub results in calls to the ORB which then calls the required object through a published IDL skeleton that links the interface to the service implementation
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 38
Ian Sommerville 2000
ORB-based object communications
o1 S (o1) o2 S (o2)
IDL stub
IDL skeleton
Object Request Broker
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 39
Inter-ORB communications
ORBs are not usually separate programs but are a set of objects in a library that are linked with an application when it is developed ORBs handle communications between objects executing on the sane machine Several ORBS may be available and each computer in a distributed system will have its own ORB Inter-ORB communications are used for distributed object calls
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 40
Ian Sommerville 2000
Inter-ORB communications
o1 S (o1) o2 S (o2) o3 S (o3) o4 S (o4)
IDL
IDL
IDL
IDL
Object Request Broker Network
Object Request Broker
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 41
CORBA services
Naming and trading services
These allow objects to discover and refer to other objects on the network These allow objects to notify other objects that an event has occurred These support atomic transactions and rollback on failure
Notification services
Transaction services
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 42
Key points
Almost all new large systems are distributed systems Distributed systems support resource sharing, openness, concurrency, scalability, fault tolerance and transparency Client-server architectures involve services being delivered by servers to programs operating on clients User interface software always runs on the client and data management on the server
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11 Slide 43
Ian Sommerville 2000
Key points
In a distributed object architecture, there is no distinction between clients and servers Distributed object systems require middleware to handle object communications The CORBA standards are a set of middleware standards that support distributed object architectures
Ian Sommerville 2000
Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 11
Slide 44
