Tradeoff Analysis Method Research Articles

E-Assessment Architecture for Higher Education: A Case Study of University Entrance Exam, Higher Education of Afghanistan

Purpose: The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that which e-assessment architecture can be useful and effective for the higher education sector in Afghanistan. Methodology: The research method was design science, where 100 questionnaires were distributed for specifying the functional and non-functional requirements of the e-assessment system. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 lecturers, 20 Administrators and 30 graduate students. This study conducted the structured interviews for analyzing the e-assessment architectures and find an applicable and accurate e-assessment architecture for university entrance exam. In this study, interviewed with five participants and the interview has 24 questions. This study used close-ended questions in the interview and considered different perspectives including interoperability, security, reusability, performance, scalability and flexibility for analyzing the e-assessment architectures. Findings: After analyze the interview results, this study propose the architecture based on NREN for the university entrance exam of Afghanistan’s higher education. This study used the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) for the evaluating the e-assessment system architecture based on NREN. For this purpose, ATAM workshop established and evaluated the proposed architecture by fifteen experts. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This study recommended the e-assessment application architecture. After the literature review, we carried out the survey in different higher education institutes, including Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul University and Kabul Education University and the respondents were the lecturers, students, administrators and the higher education ministry decision makers. The study evaluates the requirements for the e-assessment system.

Integrating systems of systems with a federation of rule engines

Systems of Systems (SoSs) integrate many critical systems our society relies on. In designing individual systems, stakeholders use bespoke protocols, custom information models, and proprietary components with limited computational resources from various vendors. We present a reference architecture that allows multiple stakeholders to carry out a flexible integration without giving up control to a single entity in the presence of the aforementioned limitations. Our architecture relies on rule engines and graph data model to integrated systems flexibly even when black-box components are used. At the same time, a federation of the rule engines allows each stakeholder to retain control over the rules that reflect their policies. We also rely on a common information model based on ontologies to account for the information model mismatch and reduce the duplication of integration efforts. Moving rule execution to the standalone rule engines allows deployment in resource-constrained and proprietary environments. A uniform application programming interface (API) is used to integrate rule engines across systems as well as components within each system with a respective rule engine. We also present a novel algorithm to determine dependencies across rules deployed in different rule engines within the federation. This allows domain experts to develop rules as usual without having to deal with the distributed aspect of the system. We also present a proof of the sufficient condition to ensure all necessary notifications will be sent to ensure correct rule activation across different rule engines. Compared to other systems involving distributed rules, the proposed architecture is well-suited for the integration of transactional workloads commonly found in enterprises. The qualitative evaluation based on the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM), applied to a telecommunications use case, shows that the architecture possesses the “interoperability”, “modifiability”, and the “functional completeness” quality attributes with a trade-off around rule expressiveness. The quantitative evaluation demonstrates speedup over the single-node setup in most scenarios except in case of highly optimized rules and a poor network performance simultaneously (tr<10ms, tn=100ms).

An analysis of blockchain versus relational databases for digitalising information flows in global supply chains using the analytic network process

Global trade is plagued by slow and inefficient manual processes associated with physical documents. Firms are constantly looking for new ways to improve transparency and increase the resilience of their supply chains. This can be solved by the digitalisation of supply chains and the automation of document- and information-sharing processes. Blockchain is touted as a solution to these issues due to its unique combination of features, such as immutability, decentralisation and transparency. A lack of business cases that quantify the costs and benefits causes uncertainty regarding the truth of these claims. This paper explores how the costs and benefits of a blockchain-based solution for digitalising and automating documentation flows in cross-border supply chains compare to a conventional centralised relational database solution. The research described in this paper uses primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with industry experts, as well as secondary data from literature. Two models based on existing services were developed and the costs and benefits compared and then analysed using the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). Findings from the analysis show that a consortium blockchain solution like TradeLens is the favourable solution for digitalising and automating information flows in cross-border supply chains.

Establishing an ecological monitoring system for national parks in China: A theoretical framework

• A theoretical framework for ecological monitoring in national parks is designed. • The importance of balancing conservation and development objectives is emphasized. • A unified and park-specific monitoring indicator system is highlighted. • An implementation mechanism combining top-down with bottom-up approaches is proposed. The protected area system in China is entering a new stage where its management seeks to consolidate governance while balancing multiple management objectives. National parks, as the mainstay of this new system, have received considerable attention in order to maintain the authenticity and integrity of ecosystems and protect globally recognized biodiversity. Well-designed ecological monitoring and the information it yields is increasingly recognized as compulsory for the effective management of national parks. However, pilot national parks in China were established through the integration of different types of protected areas and, as a result, are confronting the difficulties of integrating and synthesizing disparate monitoring programs. In this research, we put forward a theoretical framework for establishing an integrated ecological monitoring system for national parks in China. The proposed framework highlights the importance of balancing ecological conservation and community development objectives and offers the trade-off analysis method to pair key ecosystem services to the dual management objectives. It also emphasizes a unified and park-specific monitoring indicator system that requires matching the indicators to key ecological processes and specific management objectives. Moreover, we propose an implementation mechanism with a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, and encourage local communities to participate in and have access to information generated through monitoring of national parks. We submit that this research described will not only provide scientific support for policy makers to establish an ecological monitoring system in national parks, but also contribute to more informed and efficient management of the expanding network of national parks in China.

Lightweight Software Architecture Evaluation for Industry: A Comprehensive Review.

Processes for evaluating software architecture (SA) help to investigate problems and potential risks in SA. It is derived from many studies that proposed a plethora of systematic SA evaluation methods, while industrial practitioners currently refrain from applying them since they are heavyweight. Nowadays, heterogeneous software architectures are organized based on the new infrastructure. Hardware and associated software allow different systems, such as embedded, sensor-based, modern AI, and cloud-based systems, to cooperate efficiently. It brings more complexities to SA evaluation. Alternatively, lightweight architectural evaluation methods have been proposed to satisfy the practitioner’s concerns, but practitioners still do not adopt these methods. This study employs a systematic literature review with a text analysis of SA’s definitions to propose a comparison framework for SA. It identifies lightweight features and factors to improve the architectural evaluation methods among industrial practitioners. The features are determined based on the practitioner’s concerns by analyzing the architecture’s definitions from stakeholders and reviewing architectural evaluation methods. The lightweight factors are acquired by studying the five most commonly used lightweight methods and the Architecture-based Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM), the most well-known heavyweight method. Subsequently, the research addresses these features and factors.

Architecture evaluation in continuous development

ContextIn automotive, stage-gate processes have previously been the norm, with architecture created mainly during an early phase and then used to guide subsequent development phases. Current iterative and Agile development methods, where the implementation evolves continuously, changes the role of architecture. ObjectiveWe investigate how architecture evaluation can provide useful feedback during development of continuously evolving systems. MethodStarting from the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM), we performed architecture evaluation, both in a national research project led by an automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), and at the OEM, in the context of continuous development. This allows us to include the experience of several architects from different organizations over several years. Using data produced during the evaluations we perform a post-hoc analysis to derive initial findings. We then validate and refine these findings through a series of focus groups with architects and industry experts. FindingsWe propose principles of continuous evaluation and evolution of architecture, and based on these discuss a roadmap for future research. ConclusionIn iterative development settings, the needs are different from what typical architecture evaluation methods provide. Our principles show the importance of dedicated feedback-loops for continuous evolution of systems and their architecture.

Trade-off analysis between delay and throughput of RAN slicing for smart grid

Emerging power services with massive connections and real-time control have different requirements on delay, rate, reliability, etc. In order to meet the diversified requirements of power services, network slicing can provide guarantee for the wide application of 5G in power. The current research on network slicing adapting power services is still in its infancy. This paper proposes a trade-off analysis method for radio access network (RAN) slice delay and throughput based on dynamic intelligent resource allocation to meet the different QoS requirements of different services in smart grid scenarios. Firstly, clustering analysis is used to classify the communication requirements of smart grid services. A throughput demand model for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) slice users based on importance and a delay constraint model for ultra-reliable and low latency communication (uRLLC) slice users are constructed, and a throughput model for slice users based on cell capacity limitation is constructed. Then, the problem model of maximizing the throughput of the eMBB slice by reasonably allocating resource blocks and power under the premise of ensuring the delay of the uRLLC slice is established. The Lyapunov drift plus penalty function method is used to convert the above problem into a tractable form, and then the problem is solved by the active set method. Simulation results show that the different QoS requirements of smart grid services will significantly affect the actual queue length of the uRLLC slice as well as the throughput of the eMBB slice.

Architecting an Agent-Based Fault Diagnosis Engine for IEC 61499 Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems

IEC 61499 is a reference architecture for constructing Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS). However, current function block development environments only provide limited fault-finding capabilities. There is a need for comprehensive diagnostic tools that help engineers identify faults, both during development and after deployment. This article presents the software architecture for an agent-based fault diagnostic engine that equips agents with domain-knowledge of IEC 61499. The engine encourages a Model-Driven Development with Diagnostics methodology where agents work alongside engineers during iterative cycles of design, development, diagnosis and refinement. Attribute-Driven Design (ADD) was used to propose the architecture to capture fault telemetry directly from the ICPS. A Views and Beyond Software Architecture Document presents the architecture. The Architecturally-Significant Requirement (ASRs) were used to design the views while an Architectural Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) evaluated critical parts of the architecture. The agents locate faults during both early-stage development and later provide long-term fault management. The architecture introduces dynamic, low-latency software-in-loop Diagnostic Points (DPs) that operate under the control of an agent to capture fault telemetry. Using sound architectural design approaches and documentation methods, coupled with rigorous evaluation and prototyping, the article demonstrates how quality attributes, risks and architectural trade-offs were identified and mitigated early before the construction of the engine commenced.

Integrated Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, Compromise Programming, and ε-Constraint Method For Multicriteria Performance-Based Transportation Budget Allocation

This paper introduces a new method for multicriteria performance-based transportation budget allocation. First, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) that has long been used in economics for measuring the level of monopolization in a marketplace is employed to derive the relative weights of multiple non-commensurable transportation performance criteria. Next, a compromise programming (CP) model is formulated to help transform the multicriteria optimization formulation for transportation budget allocation to a single-objective optimization model solvable by minimizing the Chebyshev distance to the ideal levels of performance targets associated with individual performance criteria. Finally, the ε-constraint trade-off analysis method is incorporated into the combined use of HHI and CP framework to iteratively derive the optimal decision outcome. Six-year data on candidate investment projects proposed for a U.S. state-maintained rural Interstate highway system along with data details of the available budget is used in a computational study for method application. Comparative analysis of decision outcomes is conducted with the STEP method for cross validation. It has revealed that the proposed HHI-CP ε-constraint method outperforms the existing method and can be adopted by state and local transportation agencies to carry out effective budget allocation.

Rethinking Environmental Flows for the Yellow River Estuary by Trading Off Crop Yield and Ecological Benefits

To solve the water use conflicts between agriculture and ecosystems in arid and semiarid areas, a multi-objective trade-off analysis method was applied to determine the environmental flows (e-flows) for the Yellow River Estuary, by considering the temporal and spatial discrepancies in water allocation. The results showed that during average years, a loss of 3.7 × 108 yuan was caused with every 1 × 108 m3 of e-flows under the baseline scenario. The crop growth stages of April–July are sensitive periods for water requirements, and over 5000 yuan/ha production losses were caused by prioritizing e-flows during this time in dry years. The stages from July–October require more water by ecosystems than other stages, and the recommended e-flows during this time accounted for 57% of the e-flows during the total year. Under scenarios 1–3, which represent the short-term, medium-term and long-term scenarios, more water resources were supplied by underground water and water diversion projects; however, alleviating the water use contradiction remained difficult in dry years. During average years, e-flows between 148 and 168 × 108 m3 are recommended to meet the ecological objectives of survival, reproduction and biological integrity of species for the Yellow River Estuary. The recommended e-flows in wet years could meet higher ecological objectives but still barely achieve the targets of sediment transport and ecosystem dynamic balance. In dry years, the economic losses may be beyond the acceptance of irrigation stakeholders if more water is allocated to improve e-flows. In this case, 71 × 108 yuan would be paid to them to compensate for their losses. This study proposes an e-flow recommendation framework that is economically and ecologically optimal in areas with irreconcilable water-use contradictions.

Impact evaluation and driving type identification of human factors on rural human settlement environment: Taking Gansu Province, China as an example

Abstract Evaluating the quality of rural human (RH) settlements and clarifying its spatial differentiation characteristics have the most direct guiding role for the formulation of regional construction policies and the optimization of RH settlements. In this study, the index model of environmental quality of RH settlement was established. ImPACT and trade-off analysis methods were used to quantitatively identify the spatial differentiation of RH settlement and dominant impact human factors of it in Gansu Province in 2017. Then, the driving type of RH settlement environment was identified. Results are as follows. (1) The overall environmental quality of RH settlement in Gansu Province shows a decreasing trend from “west to east.” (2) The environmental quality of RH settlement is mainly affected by eight factors, of which the effect of quantity index per capita is more significant. (3) The trade-off relationship between the environmental quality index and these eight dominant factors is mainly low–low, which indicates that the human factors are the main reason for the environmental quality of the RH settlement. (4) Based on the dominant human factors, Gansu Province is classified into four driving types, of which the proportion of comprehensive type accounts for 77.01%.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies: A classification and comparison of architecture drivers

AbstractBlockchain is a decentralized transaction and data management solution, the technological leap behind the success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As the variety of existing blockchains and distributed ledgers continues to increase, adopters should focus on selecting the solution that best fits their needs and the requirements of their decentralized applications, rather than developing yet another blockchain from scratch. In this article we present a conceptual framework to aid software architects, developers, and decision makers to adopt the right blockchain technology. The framework exposes the interrelation between technological decisions and architectural features, capturing the knowledge from existing academic literature, industrial products, technical forums/blogs, and experts' feedback. We empirically show the applicability of our framework by dissecting the platforms behind Bitcoin and other top 10 cryptocurrencies, aided by a focus group with researchers and industry practitioners. Then, we leverage the framework together with key notions of the architectural tradeoff analysis method to analyze four real‐world blockchain case studies from industry and academia. Results shown that applying our framework leads to a deeper understanding of the architectural tradeoffs, allowing to assess technologies more objectively and select the one that best fit developers' needs, ultimately cutting costs, reducing time‐to‐market and accelerating return on investment.

Architecture-Centric Evaluation of Blockchain-Based Smart Contract E-Voting for National Elections

E-voting is one of the valid use cases of blockchain technology with many blockchain e-voting systems already proposed. But efforts that focus on critical analysis of blockchain e-voting architectures for national elections from stakeholders’ perspectives are mostly lacking in the literature. Therefore, government decision-makers and election stakeholders do not yet have a sufficient basis to understand the potential risks, challenges, and prospects that are associated with blockchain e-voting. This paper demonstrates how the use of the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) can enable stakeholders in national elections to understand the risks, prospects, and challenges that could be associated with a blockchain e-voting system for national elections. By using a study context of South Africa, a proposed blockchain e-voting architecture was used as a basis to aid election stakeholders to reason on the concept of blockchain e-voting to get them to understand the potential risks, security threats, critical requirements attributes, and weaknesses that could be associated with using blockchain e-voting for national elections. The study found that blockchain e-voting can prevent many security attacks, internal vote manipulation, and promote transparency. However, voter validation and the security of the blockchain architecture are potential weaknesses that will need significant attention.

The spatial differentiation of quality of rural life based on natural controlling factors: A case study of Gansu Province, China

The laws of regional differentiation of county development and influencing factors on the quality of rural life (QRL), affect not only the vital interests of rural residents but also the scientific implementation of rural revitalization strategy. In this paper, taking 87 counties (cities, districts) of Gansu Province as the region of study, we constructed five-dimensional model of QRL index. Then, Pearson correlation, spatial coupling, geographical detector and tradeoff analysis methods were used to analyze the QRL's spatial differentiation and quantitively identify its natural controlling factors. Further, we discussed the mechanism of spatial differentiation of QRL in Gansu Province and provided recommendations for improving QRL. The results show that: (1) QRL in Gansu Province is characterized by spatial heterogeneity and agglomeration, and decreases from west to east. There are five hot spots and four cold spots of QRL. (2) Altitude, slope, precipitation, and distance to the provincial capital (DTTPC) are the natural controlling factors of spatial differentiation of QRL in Gansu Province. Their influences are quantified to be 0.19, 0.37, 0.37 and 0.20, respectively. (3) The tradeoff between QRL and precipitation is the strongest, with root mean square deviation (RMSD) of 0.293. The tradeoff between QRL and altitude/slope/DTTCC are of medium level and decrease successively, with values of 0.238, 0.255 and 0.2 respectively. (4) According to the different influences of natural controlling factors on QRL, Gansu Province was classified into three regional types: natural environment restricted type, resource abundance restricted type and economic location restricted type. Thus, we can improve the QRL on the basis of identifying driving mechanisms in different regions, make policies according to local conditions, and further promote the rural development.

Analysis, design and development of advanced planning systems

Small and medium-sized organisations (SMO) often need to optimise their operations to improve their effectiveness in a competitive world. Advanced planning systems (APS) emerged to provide optimal operations in several areas of an organisation, including production planning and scheduling, logistics, financial, among others. Currently, there is a gap in the literature regarding proposals, from a software engineering perspective, to assist SMOs in the design and development of APS systems. This article proposes an architecture for the APS domain that supports the implementation of specific applications and can be adapted through variation points. The proposal is evaluated with architecture trade-off analysis method (ATAM) involving two different groups of stakeholders. Also, a process is included to show how to use the architecture in the implementation of a specific case. Finally, a case study based on a local industry is developed.

REST Architecture Optimization in Cloud Computing Ecosystem to Support E Learning Platform

This study will present an application design process in the style of Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture to support the E-Learning platform in the cloud computing ecosystem. An application optimization process will be presented to provide E-Learning applications for schools, faculties or universities that in most cases need manual deployment and require more time for server provisioning.This process is optimized by providing application solutions that can provide speed of provisioning.The core system used Kubernetes containerization technology to provide scalability of growing E-Learning tenants. Evaluation of the core system architecture uses the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) to evaluate aspect of performance and scalability as quality attributes. From the experimentalresults, the process of making new tenants for schools requires an average time of around 173.4 seconds. This meets the expectations of the set time limit of 5 minutes. The results of stress tests for 250 concurrent users show that the system has availability above 98%.Thus,education stakeholders such as schools and universities, no longer need to provide expensive e-learning infrastructure in the form of hardware or manpower to deploy the e-learning application on premise. In the future, this solution will provide a scalable E-Learning system that can spread at scale on the cloud computing ecosystem and support a Software as a Service solution in educational technology.

Analysis, Design and Development of Advanced Planning Systems

Small and medium-sized organisations (SMO) often need to optimise their operations to improve their effectiveness in a competitive world. Advanced planning systems (APS) emerged to provide optimal operations in several areas of an organisation, including production planning and scheduling, logistics, financial, among others. Currently, there is a gap in the literature regarding proposals, from a software engineering perspective, to assist SMOs in the design and development of APS systems. This article proposes an architecture for the APS domain that supports the implementation of specific applications and can be adapted through variation points. The proposal is evaluated with architecture trade-off analysis method (ATAM) involving two different groups of stakeholders. Also, a process is included to show how to use the architecture in the implementation of a specific case. Finally, a case study based on a local industry is developed.

Comparison of Rating Scale, Time Tradeoff, and Conjoint Analysis Methods for Assessment of Preferences in Prostate Cancer.

Background. Conjoint analysis is widely used in studies of consumer preference but has only recently been applied to measure patient utilities for health outcomes. We compared the reliability, feasibility, and internal and predictive validity of conjoint scaling methods against better established rating scale and time tradeoff methods for assessing prostate cancer utilities in men at risk for prostate cancer. Methods. In total, 194 men who were biopsy negative for prostate cancer were randomly assigned to complete 2 preference assessment modules, either conjoint analysis and a rating scale module or conjoint analysis and a time tradeoff module. Each participant's most important attribute was identified and evaluated in relation to age group (age <65, age 65 and older), education (high school, some college, college graduate), race/ethnicity (white, black, Latino), and relationship status (in significant relationship v. not). The methods were also evaluated in terms of ease of use and satisfaction. Results. Rating scales were rated as easiest to use and respondents were more satisfied with rating scales and conjoint in comparison to time tradeoffs. Rating scales and conjoint measures demonstrated significantly higher internal validity compared to time tradeoff when evaluated through R2 of the fitted utility function. The 3 methods were similar in terms of predictive validity, but conjoint analysis outperformed the rating scale method when patients were presented with novel combinations of attribute levels (68% correct v. 43%, P = 0.003). Conclusions. Rating scales and conjoint analysis exercises offer greater ease of use and higher satisfaction when measuring patient preferences in men biopsied for prostate cancer in comparison to time tradeoff exercises. Conjoint analysis may be a more robust approach to preference measurement for men at risk for prostate cancer.

Structural and behavioral reference model for IoT‐based elderly health‐care systems in smart home

SummaryIncreasing level of personal and social health and life expectancy has resulted in the growth of aged people population. Elderly care is an essential and costly issue in any society that should be addressed in researches. Elderly care has faced some problems such as elderly solitary, trained caregivers insufficiency, and increasing cost of late diagnosis of diseases and accident. Regarding to these problems, smart home technology can be used as an efficient solution. It provides an expertise, long‐term, and low‐cost care that empowers elderly to have an independent life. In this paper, we propose an architecture for a health‐care system in a smart home. In this architecture, rapid and timely diagnosis of environmental incidents and health risks causes reduction in costs of health care and relief. Given to the vital aspect of health‐care systems, the proposed architecture components and solutions are presented to meet quality attributes such as availability, performance, security, and interoperability. The proposed architecture evaluation is based on the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) scenario‐based approach. ATAM is a method for analysis and evaluation of software systems architecture. And quality attributes scenarios are examined to meet quality requirement. Compared with the previous works, more quality attributes are addressed in this paper.

Accuracy-Complexity Tradeoff Analysis and Complexity Reduction Methods for Non-Stationary IMT-A MIMO Channel Models

High-mobility wireless communication systems have attracted growing interests in recent years. For the deployment of these systems, one fundamental work is to build accurate and efficient channel models. In high-mobility scenarios, it has been shown that the standardized channel models, e.g., IMT-Advanced (IMT-A) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel model, provide noticeable longer stationary intervals than measured results and the wide-sense stationary (WSS) assumption may be violated. Thus, the non-stationarity should be introduced to the IMT-A MIMO channel model to mimic the channel characteristics more accurately without losing too much efficiency. In this paper, we analyze and compare the computational complexity of the original WSS and non-stationary IMT-A MIMO channel models. Both the number of real operations and simulation time are used as complexity metrics. Since introducing the non-stationarity to the IMT-A MIMO channel model causes extra computational complexity, some computation reduction methods are proposed to simplify the non-stationary IMT-A MIMO channel model while retaining an acceptable accuracy. Statistical properties including the temporal autocorrelation function, spatial cross-correlation function, and stationary interval are chosen as the accuracy metrics for verifications. It is shown that the tradeoff between the computational complexity and modeling accuracy can be achieved by using these proposed complexity reduction methods.