The interaction point concept

Abstract

After the introduction of a suitable formalism, we will now readdress the important issue of architectural concepts. In Chapter 2, we have informally characterized a small number of basic and derived concepts, among them the interaction point which is a key concept of open distributed systems design. It is used to conceptually model the boundaries between the system and its environment as well as between the system’s agents. These boundaries are pervious in the sense that components on different sides can mutually influence each other in a well-defined way. The existence of external interaction points (between the system and its environment) is a characteristic of open systems. Internal interaction points (between the system’s agents) are a characteristic of distributed systems.