In my teaching of software architecture, I introduced several architectural styles that can be used as a basis for the architecture of different systems. These include layered systems, pipes and filters, and model-view-controller design pattern. However, when it comes to giving some concrete examples of these software architectures, and how they can be integrated to deal with a particular software design problems, it is not easy to give some good examples. Therefore, I searched the Web to look for some good articles for this purpose. Finally, I found this article good for learning, which describes something concrete about software architecture and design patterns.

Article: Software Architecture as a Combination of Patterns (4 pages)

This article presents the four patterns, Layers, Pipes and Filters, Observer, and Model-View-Controller, are used in software architecture. It also shows that how these four different patterns can be integrated to deal with the design problem of the Ericsson Microwave Systems. I record down this for my future reference of this article. Here comes my excerpt from it.

In the Layers pattern, the system is structured as a number of layers that represent different levels of abstraction. One principle is that the components in each layer only know of and use components in lower layers.

The Pipes and Filters pattern supports Data Flow Principle in the decomposition into subsystems.This pattern is used to solve the problem of structuring a big system that transforms a stream of data.

The Observer design pattern, which is also referred to as Publish/Subscribe, supports the model of event handling in structuring the system. This pattern solves the problem where many different components must be informed of a relatively rare event in a flexible way.

The Model-View-Controller pattern divides the world into a model, a presentation part, and a control.