Philosophy of Layered Architectures
Peter J. Boait, Geoff Neville, Ruth Norris, Michael Pickman, Mark Tolhurst, John Walmsley · 1988
The design of a communications network which allows interconnection between many systems, manufactured by different companies, in many different locations, for a multitude of purposes, is a complex undertaking. As with any large task, the most effective way of defining and completing it successfully is to break it down into a number of smaller tasks. If the resulting tasks are still too large to be easily managed, then they too should be broken down. This process can be repeated as often as required until each portion is manageable.