Have you ever thought about how large-scale complex applications that get developed don’t make a mess while functioning?
Well, to build a high-performing web app, the project manager and the business person choose the most suitable software architecture pattern that provides all the required quality attributes and functionalities.
But what does software architecture mean? What are the types of software architecture patterns? And how to choose the correct one?
While we have learned what Java design patterns in software development are. It is time that we look at software architectural patterns.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
What is the Software Architecture Pattern?
Software architecture acts as the blueprint for software development. It can be an outline through which one can express and define the structural schema of the software system and how elements will interact with one another.
At the time of software development, developers encounter similar issues while writing source code for any project throughout their careers. So, an architectural pattern becomes a reusable solution for a common set of problems in software development, addressing issues like high availability, performance, and risk minimization.
Although an architectural pattern is portrayed as a software system image, it is not a software architecture. It is more like a concept that solves and describes some cohesive software elements. Hence, architectural patterns are often defined as, “strictly described and readily available”.
Having a good architecture pattern lays the foundation for the way a developer will have to deal with scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, and performance issues in the future.
Types of Software Architecture Patterns
To help, we have enlisted the most popular software architecture pattern choices in the market.
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Layered (N-tier) architecture
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Client-server architecture
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Event-driven architecture
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Pipe and Filter Pattern
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Microkernel architecture
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Service Oriented Architecture
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Microservices architecture
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Service Broker Pattern
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Peer-to-Peer Pattern
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Cloud-native architecture
While we are now familiar with the names of these architectural patterns, let’s understand each of them in detail.
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Layered (N-tier) Architecture
It is one of the most commonly used software patterns for Java EE applications. In the layered architecture, components get organized into horizontal layers where every layer has to perform a certain role in the application.
Although there’s no specification on the total number of layers that should be present in the pattern, a layered architecture typically has four layers: presentation, business, persistence, and database.
Where the presentation layer will be responsible for all browser communication and user interface logic, the business layer will execute specified business rules for a request, the persistence layer is responsible for handling functions and data persistence, and the database layer provides the ability to store and retrieve data.
While the testability and ease of development rating are relatively high in layered patterns, agility, scalability, deployment, and performance can be quite difficult and time-consuming.
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Client-Server Architecture
The two main components of the client-server architecture pattern are the client (user) and the server (service provider). The server layer here pays attention to requests from the client’s components to process the request and send a response back.
The server can be further categorized into stateless or stateful. The client component begins the interaction with the server to get the required services. Both servers and client components are connected by request/response connectors.
For a stateful server, a client component makes composite requests that include multiple small requests to allow a more transactional or conversational interaction. And to achieve this, the stateful server stores a record of each request from the client - called sessions.
Moreover, to process all the requests from different clients at the same time, the server uses a master-slave pattern. So, when requests are received by the Master, it creates different slaves to complete the requests individually, and resume the request listening.
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Event-Driven Architecture
It is a software development architecture pattern that focuses on data describing “events” or “actions”. Events in simple terms refer to actions, i.e. when something happens in the application system, an event has occurred. These events can be anything from an inventory update to an attempted security breach.
Read : Event-Driven Microservices using Java Spring Boot Cloud Stream
Event-Driven architecture is a design model connecting distributed systems for efficient communication. It makes it possible to transfer and receive information in real time. Besides, the concept of EDA works using the publish/subscribe or pub/sub communication model.
The pub/sub model is a flexible pattern for messaging enabling distributed components of the software to asynchronously interact with each other.
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Pipe and Filter Pattern
It is a software architecture pattern responsible for stream processing. The pipe and filter pattern includes components known as filters. The purpose of these filters is to filter or transform data to pass it on through connectors called pipes.
Filters in this pattern tend to manage functions such as counting and sorting. Each filter and its connected pipes have their role and work simultaneously.
While a single filter can produce data or take data from one or more ports to run concurrently, a pipe only has a single source for input and output to preserve data items and avoid altering data that’s passing through.
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Microkernel Architecture
It is best suited for software that has numerous integration points for external elements. The microkernel is also known as a plug-in architecture pattern because of how its functionalities and abilities are added to the core operating system.
It consists of two components: a core system and a plug-in. While the core includes special rules, business logic, or complex conditional processing, plugins are independent, stand-alone components that consist of custom codes, specialized processing, and additional features.
In short, the core and plugins of the microkernel architecture provide flexibility, isolation, and extensibility of custom processing logic and features.
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Service Oriented Architecture
SOA is another architectural pattern that defines how components of the software system can be made reusable through service interfaces. It allows services to communicate with each other across multiple platforms, regardless of the programming language to build applications.
Every SOA service consists of the code and data integrations needed to run a discrete, complete function for a business. It also supports loose coupling between services, so a developer can call the service with little to no idea of how it was integrated into the system.
Microservices refers to an architectural pattern for software development allowing an application to be divided into independent, smaller, autonomous parts/services. Each service in the microservice architecture is self-contained and implements a business capability in the bounded context. Moreover, each service has a separate codebase that can be managed by smaller teams, allowing services to be deployed independently.
Read: How to Build Microservices in Java
In the microservices pattern, services communicate with each other through well-defined APIs. What makes microservices popular is the agility, smaller code base, scalability, data isolation, and fault isolation that come with it.
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Service Broker Pattern
It is a software architecture pattern that’s used to build distributed software with separate components interacting over procedure calls. The service broker components deal with communication coordination processes such as transmitting exceptions and results and forwarding requests.
It consists of six components: clients, servers, brokers, client-side proxies, server-side proxies, and bridges. In this pattern, a server exposes its functionality by implementing objects and using interfaces.
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Peer-to-Peer Pattern
The peer-to-peer pattern includes decentralized nodes (network of peers) that act as both client and server. All the workload in this pattern gets divided between peers.
In simple terms, in a p2p architecture pattern, each node or workstation has the same responsibilities and capabilities. But, not all peers are equal. While edge peers only consume from the network, super peers have more resources to contribute to the network.
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Cloud-Native Architecture
It is an architecture pattern that allows businesses to build and execute scalable applications in dynamic, modern environments like private, public, or hybrid clouds. Technologies like service meshes, declarative APIs, immutable infrastructure, etc. have also amplified the cloud-native approach in the market.
With cloud-native architecture, developers can create services that are not only loosely coupled but also easily scalable, manageable, resilient, and observable.
The purpose of this pattern is to provide speed and agility for businesses that want to deal with ever-growing complexity, performance issues, recurring errors, and downtime.
Takeaway
Needless to say, the architecture pattern that you will select will become the base for all the interactions and transactions. Hence, the architecture pattern you choose must be the best fit for your business use cases, as it will determine and help in solving challenges that you might encounter during implementation.
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FAQs
Q1. What is a Software Architecture Pattern?
The software architecture pattern is a reusable solution for a common set of problems in software development, addressing issues like high availability, performance, and risk minimization.
Q2. What Are The Main Architectural Patterns?
Some of the main software architecture patterns are Service Oriented Architecture, Microservices Pattern, Client-Server Pattern, and Cloud-Native Architecture.
Q3. What Are The Types of Software Architecture Patterns?
Here is the list of the types of software architecture patterns:
-
Layered (N-tier) architecture
-
Client-server architecture
-
Event-driven architecture
-
Pipe and Filter Pattern
-
Microkernel architecture
-
Service Oriented Architecture
-
Microservices architecture
-
Service Broker Pattern
-
Peer-to-Peer Pattern
-
Cloud-native architecture