Software Architectural Styles for Network-based Applications
Roy T. Fielding · 1999
A software architecture determines how system components are identified and allocated, how the components interact to form a system, the amount and granularity of communication needed for interaction, and the interface protocols used for communication. For a network-based application, system performance is dominated by network communication. Therefore, selection of the appropriate architectural style(s) for use in designing the software architecture can make the difference between success and failure in the deployment of a network-based application. Software architectural styles have been characterized by their control-flow and dataflow patterns, allocation of functionality across components, and component types. Unfortunately, none of these characterizations are useful for understanding how a style influences the set of architectural properties, or qualities, of a system. These properties include, among others, user-perceived performance, network efficiency, simplicity, modifiability, scalability, and portability.We use these style-induced architectural properties to classify styles for network-based applications with the goal of understanding why certain styles are better than others for some applications, thus providing additional guidance for software engineers faced with the task of architectural design.