Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division

Second Semester 2018-2019
Comprehensive Examination (EC-3 Regular)
Course No. : SS ZG653
Course Title : SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURES
Nature of Exam : Open Book
Weightage : 45% No. of Pages =3
Duration : 3 Hours No. of Questions = 5
Date of Exam : 04/05/2019 (FN)
Note:
1. Please follow all the Instructions to Candidates given on the cover page of the answer book.
2. All parts of a question should be answered consecutively. Each answer should start from a fresh page.
3. Assumptions made if any, should be stated clearly at the beginning of your answer.

Q.1. Quality attributes

The recent crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes were caused by a faulty angle-of-attack
sensor that measures the level of the jet’s nose relative to oncoming air. The faulty sensor
activated an automated computer controlled flight system; that pushed the front of the
plane down due to faulty data. The automated system could not be overridden by pilot.

(a) Which quality attribute is affected for the system under consideration? [1]
(b) Suggest two distinct tactics or design solutions, for achieving the quality attributes
and prevent the crash? [2 + 2 = 4]

Q.2. Quality attributes

FastTrack is a taxi company. It wants to implement a Taxi Tracking System to track all its
taxis. Global Positioning System (GPS) transmitter will be installed in all taxis. Under
normal operating conditions, the GPS transmitter will send out a message with taxis’ id,
speed and location every 5 seconds to the central GPS receiver system. The receiver
system displays the message within 1 second of receiving it. If a technical glitch causes a
failure to the communication network during normal operation, all displays must start
showing the taxis’ id, speed and location within 30 seconds of failure.
(a) What are the 2 quality attributes can you discern for the system? [1]
(b) Describe the quality attribute scenarios for the 2 Quality Attributes. [2 + 2 = 4]

Q.3. Architecture pattern

Identify architectural patterns that could be used to address the following requirements of
a system. Also explain the reason for your choice of the specific patterns.

(a) A weather forecasting application (WFA) is being designed. Multiple external

applications are interested in receiving weather updates as and when they become
available. While designing the WFA, the exact nature of the external applications
and the technology they use is not available. [2]
(b) An enterprise has a large number of software applications to support its business
functions. These applications communicate with each other applications to perform
various business functions and obtain data maintained by them. As the applications
grew over a period of time, several point-to-point communication channels were
established between pairs of applications, resulting in a complex maze of
communication channels which was very difficult to understand and maintain. The
organization wants to re-engineer the communication between the software
applications so that direct point-to-point communication is eliminated and the
applications are highly decoupled from one another. [2]

SS ZG653 (EC-3 Regular) Second Semester 2018-2019 Page 1 of 3

SS ZG653 (EC-3 Regular) Second Semester 2018-2019 Page 2

Q.4. Meeting room display system

Interact Inc. is an organization that believes in encouraging collaboration among its

employees to enable innovation in the organization. Currently the organization uses its
Mail & Calendar system to schedule meetings and book meeting rooms.

In order to reserve a meeting room, the user first schedules a meeting using the Mail &
Calendar system by specifying the date, time & duration. The system then displays a list
of available meeting rooms during the specified time slot. The user then picks one room.

Some of the issues faced by users are:

(a) Many times, meeting rooms are booked but not used

(b) When employees walk up to a meeting room and find it unoccupied, there is no
way to know if it has been booked by someone or not. If the information about the
person who has booked the room is available, it would be possible to call the
person to confirm if they are going to use the room or not.

In order to address this issue, the organization wants to put a display in front of each
room, using a tablet, indicating whether the room is currently booked or not and if booked
who has booked it, their contact number and from what time to what time. Users can also
scroll the display to see future & past booking details of the room. Because of the
transparency brought in, users would be more responsible and they would cancel the
booking if not required. They are less likely to book a room and not use it.

The new Meeting room display system picks up meeting room booking details from the
existing Mail & Calendar system. The display changes dynamically when rooms are
booked and cancelled. An Admin screen helps monitor the bookings of all meeting
rooms. This Admin screen is accessible from a desktop as well as the tablet.

(a) Identify 2 most important ASRs of this system, other than Availability &
Performance. Recommend tactics to address these ASRs and justify your
recommendation. [2]

(b) Draw an Architecture diagram of the Meeting room display system showing the
various software components, where they reside and connection between the
software components including connection with the Mail & Calendar system. [6]

(c) Indicate the data & messages exchanged between software components by
labelling the connection between software components. Also indicate the protocol
used. [3]

(d) Mention 2 architecture patterns used in the architecture. Explain why these patterns
have been used in the architecture diagram. [4]

SS ZG653 (EC-3 Regular) Second Semester 2018-2019 Page 2 of 3

SS ZG653 (EC-3 Regular) Second Semester 2018-2019 Page 3

Q.5. Blue Star case

Blue Star is one of India’s renowned air conditioning and commercial refrigeration
company, with an annual revenue of over 510 million USD. Here is how the company
improved customer engagement by deploying a remote monitoring and control system.

Business case
Blue Star carries out maintenance and break-fix services across the country. Previously,
whenever a problem is reported, technicians from the nearest branch or dealer used to
travel to the customer location to identify, diagnose and initiate remedial work. In some
cases, the travel time could take as long as 10 to 12 hours, depending on availability of
the nearest technician. Consequently, the operation was both costly and inefficient.

Approach
In order to implement a comprehensive customer service delivery management solution,
Blue Star created a system called rView - Remote monitoring and control system. This
system consists of a cloud based server, which is securely connected to all the HVACs
(heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment) to capture machine and sensor data
at regular intervals. GPRS-based information transmission technology is used to remotely
monitor its equipment.
Machine & sensor data thus acquired is analysed to detect abnormal functioning and
predict future failures. This helps in providing tips to the customer to improve the
functioning of the equipment. Online alerts are sent to customers as well as the service
engineers to notify them about any issue in the system. This helps in ensuring timely
resolution of any problem.
The new system can also be used to provide new services such as energy management,
billing-by-usage and product performance reports used by sales, customers, Quality
assurance, R&D and manufacturing departments.

Benefits
Some major benefits of rView are longer equipment life, lesser breakdown of equipment
and lower maintenance cost.

(a) Identify 3 most important ASRs of this system, other than Availability &
Performance. Recommend tactics to address these ASRs and justify your
recommendation. [3]
(b) Draw the software architecture diagram showing the different software
components and show where they reside. Indicate the relationships between
software components. [6]
(c) Indicate the data & messages exchanged between software components by
labelling the connection between software components. Also indicate the protocol
used. [3]
(d) Mention 2 architecture patterns used in the architecture? Explain where & why
these patterns have been used in the architecture diagram. [4]

*******

SS ZG653 (EC-3 Regular) Second Semester 2018-2019 Page 3 of 3