Architecture Methodology Research Articles

Preliminary Studies to Bridge the Gap: Leveraging Informal Software Architecture Artifacts for Structured Model Creation

This study addresses the prevalent gap between structured models and informal architectural methodologies in software engineering. Recognizing the potential of informal architecture artifacts in analytical processes, we introduce a methodology that efficiently transforms these informal components into structured models. This method facilitates understanding and utilizing informal diagrams and enhances analytical capabilities through graph analysis techniques. By leveraging user-friendly tools such as Draw.io, the methodology democratizes the modeling process, making sophisticated architectural analyses accessible to a broader spectrum of professionals without requiring deep expertise in formal methods. The innovative aspects of this methodology lie in its ability to streamline the transformation process, significantly improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of model creation and analysis. These enhancements are demonstrated through a practical application involving a sample architecture diagram, where the resulting model is thoroughly analyzed using advanced graph analysis tools. This approach bridges the theoretical and practical divides in software architecture.

Applying systems engineering principles to develop an open source laser based metal powder bed fusion system

Purpose Conventional powder bed fusion systems, with their high costs, proprietary nature and restrictive fees, limit research opportunities. This study aims to unveil an affordable, open-source hardware, open-source software laser-based metal powder bed fusion system. Recognizing the distinction between DIY and open-source hardware is crucial for widespread acceptance. Design/methodology/approach The authors present a comprehensive system architecture using object process methodology for functions and architecture, a design structure matrix to model system dependencies and classical technical drawing exploded views for select subsystems. Modularization enables high adaptability, fostering potential adoption. Findings The fully open system enables unrestricted research, mirroring common industrial metal laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) systems. While “open” systems are available for purchase, they remain closed-source, lacking source code and technical drawings sharing, hindering contribution and co-development. The authors’ is the pioneering and sole open-source metal L-PBF system, boasting 1,500+ print hours. A series of industrial and academic adopters are currently implementing the system. Originality/value The open system, slicer software and controller offer unique process control, supporting multimaterial printing. The authors shared the design on the OpenAM GitHub page under the CERN-OHL-P v2 Open Source Hardware license. While it is functional for additive manufacturing (e.g. aluminum, tool steel, titanium and stainless steel), the entire process chain is actively evolving, ideal for co-development with the additive manufacturing community.

Illusion in Architecture: An Alternative for Creating Virtual Environment to Support Efficient Site Utilization

Virtual materiality has become a reality due to technological advancements. This affects the evolution of architecture. Land utilization in residential designs is currently unrestricted. Humans still exploit natural land and food supplies to build homes. Conversely, houses that merely use the land for viewing rather than traversing it are an example of inefficient land usage. In architecture, virtual materiality plays a part in creating an artificial world. In order to minimize land consumption, an architectural strategy that may introduce virtual materiality into the real world is required. Illusion is one tactic. Tricks and deceit are given priority in the illusion technique. This program is intended for home users who want to replace their natural surroundings with an artificial one. By using this method, nature can improve without requiring interference from the original environment. Modeling experiments and qualitative research are used in the research methodology. Create suggested concepts by using an architectural methodology. Rendering models and sketches are the research outputs. The findings demonstrate that home design can make use of illusion as a representation of virtual materiality. Through the application of matter illusion techniques, manufactured environments can be made to resemble natural ones. Implementing the material illusion in a trapezoidal home. Screen technology is used to do this. The center of the design is where screen technology is used to display environmental content. big horizontal and vertical sides are necessary. However, this can be a substitute for the natural environment for residents, especially in dwelling design.

Research on Multi-Objective Optimization Design of University Student Center in China Based on Low Energy Consumption and Thermal Comfort

Ensuring optimal building performance is vital for enhancing student activity comfort and fostering energy-saving initiatives toward low-carbon objectives. This paper focuses on university student centers in China, aiming to diminish building energy consumption while enhancing indoor thermal comfort. Parametric modeling of typical cases is executed using the Grasshopper 1.0.0007 software package, and the simulation of building energy consumption and indoor thermal comfort relies on the Ladybug and Honeybee plug-in. Employing a multi-objective optimization design method and the Octopus multi-objective optimization algorithm, this study integrates numerical simulations and on-site surveys to analyze how factors like building form, orientation, envelope structure, and others impact the indoor and outdoor environment. A comprehensive optimization design approach is implemented for the building’s exterior components, including the walls, windows, roof, and shading system. After conducting a comparative analysis of the annual comprehensive energy consumption and indoor thermal comfort before and after the optimization plan, it is determined that implementing these measures reduces the annual comprehensive energy consumption of the building under study by 58.8% and extends the duration of indoor thermal comfort by 53.0%. This study presents a practical optimization design methodology for university student center architecture in China, aiding architects in decision making and advocating for energy-efficient building designs.

Optimizing Transportation Services: Using TOGAF for Efficiency and Quality

In the rapidly expanding transportation industry, it is crucial to make focused and coordinated efforts to improve services with maximum efficiency. This paper seeks to explore the optimization of the Enterprise Architecture approach to effectively attain the primary objectives of the transportation industry, specifically the enhancement of service quality. The main emphasis is on implementing the enterprise architecture methodology of the open group architecture framework on a strategic basis. This paper examines how Enterprise Architecture can offer systematic and quantifiable solutions by identifying problems in infrastructure and operational processes. The research aims to provide comprehensive insights into how the Enterprise Architecture concept can optimize operational efficiency and streamline processes in the provision of transportation services. By implementing TOGAF, it is expected that the integration of systems will be seamless, technology usage will be optimized, and customer experiences will be improved. To summarize, this paper demonstrates the desire to improve transportation services. It explains how Enterprise Architecture methods, specifically within the TOGAF framework, can directly lead to advantages such as increased operational efficiency and improved service quality. This paper aims to be easily understood by a wide range of readers, including management, Information Technology professionals, and other stakeholders in the transportation industry. It avoids using overly technical language to ensure accessibility and comprehensibility.

도심복합구치소 법원 연계형 경관의 CPTED 특성 연구

The urban detention center is an abhorrent facility, but it is also a necessary facility for running the country. In order to achieve the speed and efficiency of judicial procedures, it is desirable that the facility be located together with the administrative town or legal town within the city. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of the court-connected landscape among the landscape characteristics of the urban detention center that is essential in the city. Through this study, the urban complex detention center, which is an essential facility in the city, will be able to derive the landscape characteristics that are essential for performing its functions smoothly and efficiently while minimizing the sense of incongruity in the surrounding urban context, and will be smoothly reflected in future architectural plans. The urban detention center is a hated facility in the city, but it is a facility that is essential for the speed and efficiency of judicial procedures and requires appropriate access and control at the same time. In order to perform its function smoothly while minimizing the sense of incongruity with the surrounding context in an urban legal town, special solutions and architectural methodologies are needed in the landscape sector.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE WITH TOGAF IN THE INDONESIAN FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY, CASE STUDY AT XYZ FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

The footwear industry is one of the industries that absorbs a lot of labor force, and automatically this industry has a great impact on the economic growth of the local community.
 The competition in the footwear industry involves global competition with footwear industries from all over the world. Companies that can provide good quality and efficient costs will be the choice for production places for various world footwear brands.
 The use of appropriate and integrated information technology that covers all processes, both internal and external company processes, will increase the operational effectiveness of the company.
 The design of this information technology utilization is built by adopting the TOGAF framework. TOGAF is a standard methodology and framework for enterprise architecture that has been widely used by leading organizations in the world to improve their business effectiveness and efficiency by utilizing information technology. This journal will provide design and implementation of TOGAF standards in the footwear industry, with study case at XYZ footwear industry to deliver enterprise architecture for footwear industry in Indonesia, so they can improve competitiveness among other footwear industry globally.

Towards a Unified Architecture Methodology for Product Service Systems

AbstractThere is ongoing digital transformation in many industrial contexts including non‐digital hardware‐intensive domains such as heavy construction equipment machinery. This transformation is augmented by the latest technologies, increasing sustainability regulations, as well as integrated customer needs. This paradigm shift is causing transformation of current product‐centric business models towards complex business models enabled by so‐called Product Service Systems (PSS) offering advanced “capabilities” and “services”. However, the development of PSSs requires a holistic approach to unify underlying solution domains such as mechatronic systems, embedded software control as well as information systems. In this paper, we describe a holistic “unified” architecture description methodology towards aligning the underlying domain‐specific design and development contexts. The framework, developed in construction domain, consists of two main parts: a minimalistic reference model as the “common language” for cross‐functional stakeholder communication; a modeling methodology based on existing standard modeling frameworks. We illustrate the methodology using examples from the construction equipment domain.

An Effective Open ERP System for Automation in Financial Reporting for SMEs based on Service Oriented Architecture

Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are currently in high demand and highly developed in many countries. However, several SMEs still do not yet have an information system to support their business processes. This causes the absence of a system that helps integrate data from each process and sector in SMEs. All data exchanges and transaction report generation are done manually and recorded using physical documents that reduce effectiveness and increase costs. This research uses the accounting module in Open ERP or Odoo Version 11.0 software and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) methods to design ERP systems for general types of SMEs in the finance sector, specifically on the sales and purchase process. So the solution for recording financial transactions and making financial reports for SMEs is to design an ERP system based on Open Source using the Service Oriented Architecture methodology, namely Smart SMEs, by implementing the Automatic Reporting feature to create best practices on an integrated system, especially in recording transactions in the sales and purchase processes so that financial reports can be generated automatically and are real-time. The result of this research is the design of ERP systems in the finance section connected occurs especially in the financial recording of the purchase of goods, the sale of goods, and the creation of financial statements automatically. This system can help the finance sector record transactions and make automatic financial reports that can be generated in real-time.

Enhancing Traffic Density Detection and Synthesis through Topological Attributes and Generative Methods

This study investigates the utilization of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) within the realm of traffic forecasting, a critical aspect of intelligent transportation systems. The accuracy of traffic predictions is pivotal for various applications, including trip planning, road traffic control, and vehicle routing. The research comprehensively explores three notable GNN architectures—Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs), GraphSAGE (Graph Sample and Aggregation), and Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNNs)—specifically in the context of traffic prediction. Each architecture's methodology is meticulously examined, encompassing layer configurations, activation functions, and hyperparameters. With the primary aim of minimizing prediction errors, the study identifies GGNNs as the most effective choice among the three models. The outcomes, presented in terms of Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE), reveal intriguing insights. While GCNs exhibit an RMSE of 9.25 and an MAE of 8.2, GraphSAGE demonstrates improved performance with an RMSE of 8.5 and an MAE of 7.6. Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNNs) emerge as the leading model, showcasing the lowest RMSE of 9.2 and an impressive MAE of 7.0. However, the study acknowledges the dynamic nature of these results, emphasizing their dependency on factors such as the dataset, graph structure, feature engineering, and hyperparameter tuning.

Space-technological and architectural methodology and process towards design of long-term habitats for scientific human missions on mars

Centered on the core idea of long duration habitat design for research crew on Mars, the Martian Habitat Units (MHUs) are designed as a cluster of 10 units each with the maximum capacity of 9 crew members to live and carry on with the local challenges of scientific and exploratory life, while enjoying their lives as intellectual, social individuals in the harsh environment of Mars for durations in the order of magnitude of several years. This approach to the concept of a living environment in sharp contradiction to that of a shelter with the minimal capabilities to meet the requirements of terrestrial life to the point of survival, has led the outcoming design to be a fulfilling environment for the inhabitants of the units to evolve and thrive culturally, while being on a years-long mission. This manuscript provides detailed insight on the lessons learned of the aforementioned comprehensive design attempt with, but not limited to, the following core concerns:•The initial stand-point of such a design procedure relies on an ever increasing and comprehensive list of concerns, be it classically discussed in the literature and predictable, or unforeseen on the face of it, but to be prevented anyhow. The manuscript discusses the most crucial ones of such criteria/concerns.•The infamous saying of “Whatever that can go wrong, will go wrong” demands a rather complex level of redundancies in all layers of the design and the thought procedure behind its all aspects. The manuscript addresses the adequate steps towards its realization.•Modularity in all layers of the design plays a key role in reducing construction, maintenance, and installation costs, as for any deep space mission the mentioned expenses are astronomically high themselves. The manuscript presents our solution for geometric modularity of the design.

An Implementation Methodology for the Online Tracking Simulation Architecture of the 660 MW USCFB

This paper studies the implementation strategy of an online tracking simulation system for the 660 MW ultra supercritical circulating fluidized bed boiler (USCFB). The establishment of the online system can be divided into offline and online phases. In the offline phase, the high-precision model and initial condition database of the boiler are first established. After the initial conditions are loaded, the initial conditions are adjusted through mass and energy compensation to make the initial state of the model consistent with the current operating state of the unit. In the online phase, this paper analyzes the global sensitivity of the 660 MW USCFB, establishes an online tracking mechanism based on the PI controller, and conducts simulation tests. The experiment shows that the tracking simulation system established in this paper can track the analog signal quickly and accurately.

An Optimization Framework for Data Collection in Software Defined Vehicular Networks.

A Software Defined Vehicular Network (SDVN) is a new paradigm that enhances programmability and flexibility in Vehicular Adhoc Networks (VANETs). There exist different architectures for SDVNs based on the degree of control of the control plane. However, in vehicular communication literature, we find that there is no proper mechanism to collect data. Therefore, we propose a novel data collection methodology for the hybrid SDVN architecture by modeling it as an Integer Quadratic Programming (IQP) problem. The IQP model optimally selects broadcasting nodes and agent (unicasting) nodes from a given vehicular network instance with the objective of minimizing the number of agents, communication delay, communication cost, total payload, and total overhead. Due to the dynamic network topology, finding a new solution to the optimization is frequently required in order to avoid node isolation and redundant data transmission. Therefore, we propose a systematic way to collect data and make optimization decisions by inspecting the heterogeneous normalized network link entropy. The proposed optimization model for data collection for the hybrid SDVN architecture yields a 75.5% lower communication cost and 32.7% lower end-to-end latency in large vehicular networks compared to the data collection in the centralized SDVN architecture while collecting 99.9% of the data available in the vehicular network under optimized settings.

A High-Level Planning Methodology of Enterprise Application Architecture

Enterprise IT strategy is an important tool for the success of enterprise digitization and informatization. Enterprise application architecture is the core of enterprise IT strategy. Aiming at the shortcomings of traditional enterprise application architecture methodology, this paper proposes a high-level planning methodology, which starts from enterprise business architecture, integrates application status analysis and application solution survey results, and uses suitable application architecture principles to complete the high-level planning of enterprise application architecture. This methodology has been successfully used in many enterprise IT strategy projects, and this article illustrates it with examples.

A Review of Energy Aware Cyber-Physical Systems

ABSTRACT In recent years, the number of connected devices and systems has increased exponentially, along with their daily use. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are complex multi-layered feedback systems that combine computing resources and interaction with the physical environment using sensors and actuators. Energy is considered one of the major concerns driven by the increasing number of connected systems. In this paper, we review current research approaches in energy-aware CPS. We propose a novel architectural methodology to analyse and compare state-of-the-art approaches, on their architectural design and energy-related factors. We finally draw recommendations from our review on how to build energy-aware CPS solutions.

Decision as a Service for Transaction Banking Using Service-Oriented Modeling Architecture Methodology

In order to gain a competitive edge in the banking industry, direct face-to-face interactions between customers and banks are being gradually replaced by virtual interactions. Instead, they communicate using electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and web applications. Transaction banking, which provides commercial services for banking products to small, medium, and large corporations, is a highly typical work unit in banking. Shipping and international payments, risk management for international trade, and other services are provided. We use the Service Oriented Modelling Architecture (SOMA) methodology to solve the problem of the transaction banking unit by relocating it from a system with general dependencies to a system that is independent of the entire service and operates on a small function scale. The study found that a decision as a service (DAAS) model with an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), Business Process Management (BPM), and Business Rule Management (BRM) solution can provide guidelines for the design of decision rules pertaining to integrated or separate business modeling, thereby aiding business unit delivery.

FARANE-Q: Fast Parallel and Pipeline Q-Learning Accelerator for Configurable Reinforcement Learning SoC

This paper proposes a FAst paRAllel and pipeliNE Q-learning accelerator (FARANE-Q) for a configurable Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm implemented in a System on Chip (SoC). The proposed work offers flexibility, configurability, and scalability while maintaining computation speed and accuracy to overcome the challenges of a dynamic environment and increasing complexity. The proposed method includes a Hardware/Software (HW/SW) design methodology for the SoC architecture to achieve flexibility. We also propose joint optimizations on the algorithm, architecture, and implementation to obtain optimum (high efficiency) performance, specifically in energy and area efficiency. Furthermore, we implemented the proposed design in a real-time Zynq Ultra96-V2 FPGA platform to evaluate the functionality with an actual use case of smart navigation. Experimental results confirm that the proposed accelerator FARANE-Q outperforms state-of-the-art works by achieving a throughput of up to 148.55 MSps. It corresponds to the energy efficiency of 1747.64 MSps/W per agent for 32-bit and 2424.33 MSps/W per agent for 16-bit FARANE-Q. Moreover, the proposed 16-bit FARANE-Q outperforms other related works by an improvement of at least <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.23\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> in energy efficiency. The designed system also maintains an error accuracy of less than 0.4% with optimized bit precision for more than eight fraction bits. The proposed FARANE-Q also offers a speed up of processing time up to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1795\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> compared to embedded SW computation executed on ARM Zynq processor and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$280\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> of computation of full software executed on i7 processor. Hence, the proposed work has the potential to be used for smart navigation, robotic control, and predictive maintenance.

Visualization Techniques via MLBS for Personnel Management in Major Events

Mobile location-based services (MLBS) refer to services around geographic location data. Mobile terminals use wireless communication networks (or satellite positioning systems) to obtain users’ geographic location coordinate information based on spatial databases and integrate with other information to provide users with required location-related services. The development of systems based on MLBS has significance and practical value. In this paper a visualization management information system for personnel in major events based on microservices, namely MEPMIS, is designed and implemented by using MLBS. The system consists of a server and a client app, and it has some functions including map search and query, personnel positioning and scheduling, location management, messaging, and location service. Managers of the events can quickly search and locate the staff on the specific area of the map in real-time, and make broadcasting messages to the staff, and manage the staff. The client app is developed on the Android system, by which staff users can send the positions information to the server timely. The client users can search fuzzily near their peers and list their locations, and also call near peers through sending messages or query the history record of staff locations. In the design of the system, several new proposed techniques, including visual annotation method for overlapping locations, correcting trajectory drift algorithm, microservices-based overall system architecture methodology and other new techniques, which are applied to the implementation of the system. Also, HTML5, JQuery, MLBS APIs (Application Program Interfaces) related programming techniques have been used and combined with loading Ajax asynchronously and Json data encapsulation, map marker optimization techniques, that can improve the positioning accuracy and the performance of the system. The developed system with practical functions can enhance the efficiencies of the organization and management of major events.

An FPGA Based Energy-Efficient Read Mapper With Parallel Filtering and In-Situ Verification.

In the assembly pipeline of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), read mapping is a widely used method to re-assemble the genome. It employs approximate string matching and dynamic programming-based algorithms on a large volume of data and associated structures, making it a computationally intensive process. Currently, the state-of-the-art data centers for genome sequencing incur substantial setup and energy costs for maintaining hardware, data storage and cooling systems. To enable low-cost genomics, we propose an energy-efficient architectural methodology for read mapping using a single system-on-chip (SoC) platform. The proposed methodology is based on the q-gram lemma and designed using a novel architecture for filtering and verification. The filtering algorithm is designed using a parallel sorted q-gram lemma based method for the first time, and it is complemented by an in-situ verification routine using parallel Myers bit-vector algorithm. We have implemented our design on the Zynq Ultrascale+ XCZU9EG MPSoC platform. It is then extensively validated using real genomic data to demonstrate up to 7.8× energy reduction and up to 13.3× less resource utilization when compared with the state-of-the-art software and hardware approaches.

Spatial narrative research with architecture as the media

Abstract With the development of economic globalization and the information age, architecture has gradually become a kind of seal of politics, capital and culture, and is divorced from the spirit and life experience of the existing places in the region. Therefore, the field of architecture constantly seeks new research paradigm from the interdisciplinary perspective and reconsiders the creative activities of architecture. From the late last century, with the introduction of architecture by postmodern philosophy, semiotics, geographical psychology, phenomenology and cultural anthropology, there has been a cross-research between architecture and narratology. The recent research hopes to conduct an in-depth analysis of the theory of architectural spatial narrative and its development in the context of complex disciplines, and to research spatial narrative as a design methodology for architecture.