Design Of Reference Architecture Research Articles

Reference architecture design and evaluation for digitalization of underground mining

Digitalization of underground mining operations requires interaction and interoperability between multiple stakeholders and their technical systems. A reference architecture (RA) facilitating design of multi-stakeholder digital solutions for underground mining would be valuable design knowledge for mining industry digitalization activities and would facilitate the design of concrete architectures to the underground mining context. The main contribution of this work is RA design, which is missing in the current research literature. The RA has empirical foundation on the implementation architectures of two prototypes, which were demonstrated and evaluated in an underground mining environment. The prototypes were evaluated based on several design science research evaluation criteria (feasibility, efficiency, robustness, operability) for fulfilling architectural concerns of related stakeholders. Digital Twin-based modeling, MQTT-based messaging, high accuracy location monitoring of vehicles with Lidars, reliable communication with 5G SA network, and utilization of safety zones and safety messaging for enabling emergency stops were identified as important aspects for RA design. Digital Twin (DT)-based data models focusing on the modeling of mining site, moving vehicles, communication data, and related equipment for the underground mining context may be considered as an additional contribution of our study.

Reference architecture design for developing data management systems in smart farming

The traditional data management systems prove inadequate to handle the volume, velocity, and variety of the data within farm business processes. Smart farming technologies offer advanced data management systems as a practical solution to these challenges. However, data is complex and originates from many sources; hence many aspects of data must be considered during the data management design of smart farming systems. This study proposes a reference architecture for data management in smart farming, developed through domain analysis and architecture modeling approaches. The domain analysis provides insights into the common and variant features and modules of the smart farming system, resulting in a blueprint representing family features across various smart farming domains. The effectiveness of the proposed reference architecture has been evaluated through two case studies, demonstrating its efficacy in designing data management systems for smart farming. The study found that the percentage of reused modules in the case studies, compared to the provided reference architecture, was 82.6%. The outcomes of this research will pave the way for further exploration in smart farming, particularly addressing data management issues within smart farming systems.

Microservice reference architecture design: A multi‐case study

AbstractMicroservice architecture (MSA) is an architectural style that is designed to support the modular development of software systems within a particular domain. It is characterized by the use of small, independently deployable services, which can be developed and deployed autonomously. The benefits of MSA include improved scalability, fault‐tolerance, and ease of deployment and maintenance. However, developing MSA for a specific domain can be challenging and requires a thorough consideration of various concerns such as service boundaries, communication protocols, and security. To support the easy development and guidance of an MSA for practitioners, we present a reference architecture design for MSA. The reference architecture has been designed after a comprehensive domain analysis of MSA in the literature and the MSAs of key vendors. This analysis has been used to identify best practices and common patterns that can be applied to the development of MSA. Additionally, relevant architecture viewpoints have been selected to model the corresponding architecture views, providing a clear and comprehensive understanding of the architecture. To validate the proposed reference architecture, a multi‐case study research approach has been used. In this approach, two industrial case studies have been used to demonstrate the practical applicability of the proposed reference architecture. The results of these case studies have shown that the reference architecture can be used to effectively guide the development of MSA in real‐world scenarios.

Reference architecture design for computer-based speech therapy systems

With the current international shortage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs), there is a demand for online tools to support SLPs with their daily tasks. For this purpose, several online speech therapy systems (OSTSs) have been proposed and discussed in the literature. However, developing these OSTSs is not trivial since it involves the consideration of various functional and quality concerns. Hence, for communicating the design decisions and guiding the development and analysis of these systems, a proper architecture design is important. Unfortunately, the architecture design of OSTSs has not been explicitly addressed in the literature. To this end, we present a reference architecture for OSTSs which has been designed following well-established architecture design methods. The reference architecture captures the reusable design elements of OSTSs and can be used to derive various different application architectures. A case study approach is used to illustrate and validate the use of the presented reference architecture.

Design of a Data Management Reference Architecture for Sustainable Agriculture

Effective and efficient data management is crucial for smart farming and precision agriculture. To realize operational efficiency, full automation, and high productivity in agricultural systems, different kinds of data are collected from operational systems using different sensors, stored in different systems, and processed using advanced techniques, such as machine learning and deep learning. Due to the complexity of data management operations, a data management reference architecture is required. While there are different initiatives to design data management reference architectures, a data management reference architecture for sustainable agriculture is missing. In this study, we follow domain scoping, domain modeling, and reference architecture design stages to design the reference architecture for sustainable agriculture. Four case studies were performed to demonstrate the applicability of the reference architecture. This study shows that the proposed data management reference architecture is practical and effective for sustainable agriculture.

An Immunology-Inspired Network Security Architecture

The coming 5G networks have been enabling the creation of a wide variety of new services and applications which demand a new network security architecture. Immunology is the study of the immune system (primarily) in vertebrates (including humans) which protects us from infection through various lines of defense. By studying the resemblance between the immune system and the network security system, we acquire some inspirations from immunology and distill some guidelines for the design of network security architecture. We present a philosophical design principle, that is maintaining the balance between security and availability. Then, we derive two methodological principles: 1) achieving situation-awareness and fast response through cooperation among heterogeneous nodes; 2) enhancing defense capability through consistently contesting with invaders in a real environment and actively mutating/evolving attack strategies. We also present a reference architecture design based on the principles.

Reference architecture design for farm management information systems: a multi-case study approach

One of the key elements of precision agriculture is the farm management information system (FMIS) that is responsible for data management, analytics and subsequent decision support. Various FMISs have been developed to support the management of farm businesses. A key artefact in the development of FMISs is the software architecture that defines the gross level structure of the system. The software architecture is important for understanding the system, analysing the design decisions and guiding the further development of the system based on the architecture. To assist in the design of the FMIS architecture, several reference architectures have been provided in the literature. Unfortunately, in practice, it is less trivial to derive the application architecture from these reference architectures. Two underlying reasons for this were identified. First of all, it appears that the proposed reference architectures do not specifically focus on FMIS but have a rather broad scope of the agricultural domain in general. Secondly, the proposed reference architectures do not seem to have followed the proper architecture documentation guidelines as defined in the software architecture community, lack precision, and thus impeding the design of the required application architectures. Presented in this article is a novel reference architecture that is dedicated to the specific FMIS domain, and which is documented using the software architecture documentation guidelines. In addition, the systematic approach for deriving application architectures from the proposed reference architecture is provided. To illustrate the approach, the results of multi-case study research are shown in which the presented reference architecture is used for deriving different FMIS application architectures.

Configuration information system architecture: Insights from applied action design research

One of the critical information systems that enables service resilience is the service configuration information system (CiS). The fundamental challenge for organisations is the effective designing and implementation of the CiS architecture. This paper addresses this important research problem and reports insights from a completed applied action design research (ADR) project in an Australian financial services organisation. This paper aims to provide guidance to researchers and practitioners contemplating ADR, rooted in the organisational context, for practice-oriented academia-industry collaborative research. This research also contributes in terms of the CiS reference architecture design knowledge and demonstrates the applicability of the ADR method.