Logical Interfaces for Multi-Tier Architecture Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large and complex software and hardware architectures, developed by multiple teams, face challenges in interoperability due to cumbersome and complex documentation. Conventional methods, such as APIs, often fail to provide sufficient information for clear interaction requirements between elements, leading to difficulties in verification and analysis.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of logical interfaces that define high-level requirements of the functionality of elements within a multi-tier architecture. These interfaces capture the requirements of each element and sub-element, allowing for tracing down to physical interface details, and enable reduced duplication of expectations and policies by defining relationships between elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional documentation methods are used to define architecture interfaces, then complete coverage of all element requirements is achieved, but the documentation becomes too large and complex to effectively use and maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monolithic architecture documentation into hierarchical layers (system level, component level, interface level). Each layer documents only the interfaces relevant to that level, eliminating the need for single developers to navigate thousands of pages while maintaining complete coverage through the hierarchical structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and documents only the essential interface properties needed at each hierarchical level, rather than documenting all possible properties everywhere. This selective extraction reduces documentation complexity while maintaining reliability by documenting complete interfaces at the appropriate level of abstraction.
2Ease of manufacture
If APIs are used to capture requirements of each element, then interface definitions are provided, but sufficient information is not provided to easily discern what one element may require from another element
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a hierarchical dimension to interface documentation, organizing interfaces across multiple levels (system, component, interface). This dimensional organization preserves contextual information about how interfaces fit into the overall architecture while maintaining ease of access to specific interface definitions through the hierarchical structure.
3Reliability
If conventional methods describe an architecture by specifying APIs of every possible interface, then complete interface coverage is achieved, but the methods become highly complex and prohibitive to understanding, analysis, and verification
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments interface verification into hierarchical levels, allowing verification at each level independently. This segmentation makes architecture verification manageable by breaking down the complex task of verifying all interfaces into smaller, level-specific verification tasks that are easier to perform and maintain.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hierarchical abstractions as intermediaries between the concrete interface implementations and the overall architecture verification. These abstractions mediate the verification process by providing simplified models at each level that can be verified independently, reducing the complexity of overall architecture verification while maintaining completeness.
Data Source
AI summary
In various examples, one or more logical interfaces are used to represent functional requirements of an architecture specification. The logical interfaces may indicate one or more dependencies of functionalities associated with a plurality of components of the architecture. Using the logical interfaces, one or more physical interfaces between the components may be recursively determined and used to perform an operation using the plurality of components.