Symmetry (Oct 2021)
The 1+5 Architectural Views Model in Designing Blockchain and IT System Integration Solutions
Abstract
Service fulfillment for clients increasingly involves cooperation between information technology (IT) systems. Designing such solutions requires an architectural approach that ensures symmetry between the communicating parties. For the design of such systems, the author introduces the 1+5 architectural views model. The model contains three new architectural views. For business process modeling, it ensures the integrated processes view. Integration aspects cover two additional views: integrated services, and contracts. Moreover, new stereotypes and tagged values have been added to the unified modeling language (UML). The author has introduced two profiles: UML profile for integration flows, and UML profile for distributed ledger deployment. Communication between systems requires flows that arrange mediation mechanisms. The paper describes an integration flow diagram that extends a UML activity diagram. In the case of blockchain, the author has proposed the smart contract design pattern. The paper describes three case studies that have employed the model to design various solutions. The 1+5 model has proven to be well suited for designing both centralized integration environments with enterprise service bus (ESB) and distributed blockchain solutions with peer-to-peer (P2P) connections.
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