A technical map of the software.
This document describes (only) the technical aspects of the Boost architecture through a set of interlocked architectural viewpoints. As such, it is only aimed at developers who need to understand the big picture before modifying the architecture or extending the code with new functionality.
Draft. Even though this document is a first draft and many sections need to be expanded, the included material should be enough to gain a good understanding of the Boost architecture.
We assume the reader is well versed in distributed systems and cloud computing. Also assumed is general knowledge of identity and access management systems as well as the rudiments of symmetric/asymmetric cryptography and digital signatures. Moreover, the reader should be familiar with the following technologies: HTTP, TLS, gRPC, OAuth 2, JWT, XACML, Docker, Kubernetes, Istio (in particular the old Mixer architecture), FiWare (Context Broker, AuthZ, KeyRock), International Data Spaces (IDS basic concepts, DAPS).
- Overview. The basic ideas are summarised here and then further developed in later sections.
- System requirements. An account of functional requirements and system quality attributes.
- Information model. What information the system handles and how it is represented and processed, with an emphasis on security.
- System decomposition. Subsystems and components, modularity, code generation.
- Message passing mechanics. Distributed communication protocols and synchronisation, message routing and manipulation.
- Caching.
- Deployment and scalability.
- Quality assurance.