Space-based architecture
Encyclopedia
Space-Based Architecture (SBA) is a software architecture pattern
for achieving linear scalability
of stateful, high-performance applications using the tuple space
paradigm. It follows many of the principles of Representational State Transfer
(REST), service-oriented architecture
(SOA) and Event-driven architecture (EDA), as well as elements of grid computing
. With a space-based architecture, applications are built out of a set of self-sufficient units, known as processing-units (PU). These units are independent of each other, so that the application can scale by adding more units.
The SBA model is closely related to other patterns that have been proved successful in addressing the application scalability challenge, such as Shared-Nothing Architecture
, used by Google, Amazon.com and other well-known companies. The model has also been applied by many firms in the securities industry for implementing scalable electronic securities trading applications.
Architectural pattern (computer science)
An architectural pattern in software is a standard design in the field of software architecture. The concept of a software architectural pattern has a broader scope than the concept of a software design pattern...
for achieving linear scalability
Scalability
In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...
of stateful, high-performance applications using the tuple space
Tuple space
A tuple space is an implementation of the associative memory paradigm for parallel/distributed computing. It provides a repository of tuples that can be accessed concurrently. As an illustrative example, consider that there are a group of processors that produce pieces of data and a group of...
paradigm. It follows many of the principles of Representational State Transfer
Representational State Transfer
Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...
(REST), service-oriented architecture
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
(SOA) and Event-driven architecture (EDA), as well as elements of grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
. With a space-based architecture, applications are built out of a set of self-sufficient units, known as processing-units (PU). These units are independent of each other, so that the application can scale by adding more units.
The SBA model is closely related to other patterns that have been proved successful in addressing the application scalability challenge, such as Shared-Nothing Architecture
Shared nothing architecture
A shared nothing architecture is a distributed computing architecture in which each node is independent and self-sufficient, and there is no single point of contention across the system...
, used by Google, Amazon.com and other well-known companies. The model has also been applied by many firms in the securities industry for implementing scalable electronic securities trading applications.
Components of Space-Based Architecture
An application built on the principles of space-based architecture typically has the following components:- Processing Unit — the unit of scalability and fail-over. Normally, a processing unit is built out of a POJOPlain Old Java ObjectIn computing software, POJO is an acronym for Plain Old Java Object. The name is used to emphasize that a given object is an ordinary Java Object, not a special object...
(Plain Old Java Object) container, such as that provided by the Spring Framework.
- Virtual Middleware — a common runtime and clustering model, used across the entire middlewareMiddlewareMiddleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
stack. The core middleware components in a typical SBA architecture are:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Messaging Grid | Handles the flow of incoming transaction as well as the communication between services |
| Data Grid | Manages the data in distributed memory with options for synchronizing that data with an underlying database |
| Processing Grid | Parallel processing component based on the master/worker pattern (also known as a blackboard pattern Blackboard system A blackboard system is an artificial intelligence application based on the blackboard architectural model, where a common knowledge base, the "blackboard", is iteratively updated by a diverse group of specialist knowledge sources, starting with a problem specification and ending with a solution... ) that enables parallel processing of events among different services |
- POJO-Driven Services Model — A lightweight services model that can take any standard Java implementation and turn it into a loosely coupled distributed service. The model is ideal for interaction with services that run within the same processing-unit.
- SLA-Driven Container — The SLA-driven container enables the deployment of the application on a dynamic pool of machines based on Service Level Agreements. SLA definitions include the number of instances that need to run in order to comply with the application scaling and fail-over policies, as well as other policies.