TOWARDS N-TIER ARCHITECTURE FOR FIJI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS INFORMATION SYSTEMS by Bimal Aklesh Kumar A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Copyright © by Bimal Aklesh Kumar School of Computing, Information and Mathematical Sciences Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment The University of the South Pacific June, 2013 Acknowledgment My sincere gratitude to Associate Professor Dr. Khalil Shihab for the supervision of this thesis. I am grateful to The University of the South Pacific for supporting the research undertaken in this thesis. i This thesis is dedicated to my family. ii List of Acronyms API - Application Programmers Interface CIS - Campus Information Systems CORBA - Common Object Request Broker Architecture FNU - Fiji National University FNU-CIS - Fiji National University Campus Information Systems HOD - Head of Department HTML - Hypertext Markup Language HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol ID - Identification Number IT - Information Technology JDBC - Java Database Connectivity JEE - Java Enterprise Edition J2EE - Java 2 Enterprise Edition JMS - Java Messaging Service JSP - Java Server Pages MIS - Management Information Systems OOA - Object Oriented Analysis OOD - Object Oriented Design OMG - Object Management Group ORB - Object Request Broker P2P - Peer to Peer PDA - Personal Digital Assistant POA - Portable Object Adapter RDBMS - Relational Database Management System RMI - Remote Method Invocation WML - Wireless Markup Language XML - Extensible Markup Language iii List of Tables Table 3-1 Login Use Case Description……………………………………………...…...…..26 Table 3-2 Enrollment Use Case Description……………………………………….....….….27 Table 3-3 Evaluation of Campus Information Systems……………………….……...…..….36 Table 5-1 Average Response Time ………………………………………….….…...…..…..62 Table 5-2 Average Throughput ……………………………………………………..….…....63 Table 5-3 Average Latency ………………………………………………………..…….…..65 Table 5-4 Comparative Testing…………………………………………………….……......67 Table 5-5 Web Server Farm Average Response Time………………….……………….…..69 Table 5-6 Web Server Farm Average Throughput….…………………..…………….……..70 Table 5-7 Application Server Response Time………………….…………………..………..72 Table 5-8 Application Server Throughput…………………………………………..………73 iv List of Figures Figure 1-1 FNU-CIS N-Tier Architecture……………………………………………………..4 Figure 2-1 Accessing CORBA Object via SOAP ……………………………………………18 Figure 3-1 FNU-CIS Use Case Diagram……………………………………………..………25 Figure 3-2 Example Login Use Case………………………………………………...……….26 Figure 3-3 Example Enrollment Use Case……………………………………………………27 Figure 3-4 FNU-CIS OOA Class Diagram…………………………………………………...31 Figure 3-5 Login Sequence Diagram…………………………………………………………33 Figure 3-6 Enrollment Sequence Diagram……………………………………………………34 Figure 4-1 FNU-CIS Deployment Diagram…………………………………………………..39 Figure 4-2 FNU-CIS Software architecture…………………………………………………..40 Figure 4-3 FNU-CIS Wide Area Implementation…………………………………………… 41 Figure 4-4 FNU-CIS N-Tier Class Diagram……………………………………………….…42 Figure 4-5 Login Class Interaction Diagram…………………………………………………43 Figure 4-6 Enrollment Class Interaction Diagram……………………………………………45 Figure 4-7 Dynamic Login Sequence Diagram………………………………………………47 Figure 4-8 Dynamic Enrollment Sequence Diagram…………………………………………48 Figure 4-9 Login Web Page…………………………………………………………………..49 Figure 4-10 Login Web Page Code Extract……………………………………………………50 Figure 4-11 Java Web Server…………………………………………………………….…….51 Figure 4-12 FNU-CIS Web Server Farm………………………………………………………52 Figure 4-13 User Interface Class Code Extract………………………………………………..52 Figure 4-14 Login Function Code Extract………………………………………………..…. .53 Figure 4-15 Student Application Server Code Extract………………………………………...54 Figure 4-16 CORBA Application Server…………………………………………….……….. 55 Figure 4-17 FNU-CIS Application Server Cluster………………………………….……….....56 Figure 4-18 Remote Student Manager Code Extract………………………………….…….…57 Figure 5-1 Prototype 1………………………………………………………………….….....60 Figure 5-2 Prototype 2……………………………………………………………….……….60 Figure 5-3 Prototype 3…………………………………………………………….………….61 v Figure 5-4 Average Response Time Graph……………………………………….………….62 Figure 5-5 Average Throughput Graph…………………………………………….………...65 Figure 5-6 Average Latency Graph…………………………………………….……………..65 Figure 5-7 Web Server Farm ……………………..………………………………….……….68 Figure 5-8 Application Server Cluster …….……….………………………………………...71 vi Abstract Software architecture is very important in the development of large scale software solution and plays a very active role in achieving business goals. The research described in this thesis is an attempt to utilize the N-Tier software architecture for developing a prototype campus information system for Fiji National University (FNU-CIS) to address the issue of performance and scalability. To assist in the design and implementation of FNU-CIS, an extensive evaluation of campus information systems was carried out to provide the bench mark on the current technology. N-Tier software architecture was designed with the implementation of FNU-CIS using JEE and CORBA. Experiments were carried out to assess the performance and scalability of the newly developed system. Several tests were carried out to measure the response time, throughput and latency of our system in distributed settings, and the results mainly favored FNU-CIS. This research makes a significant contribution to the field of software engineering in today’s world where high performance and scalability of IT applications are often equated with better business, the process and techniques used in building such systems is paramount. The ideas presented in this thesis can be easily utilized for the development of other large scale systems with similar issues to address. vii Table of Contents List of Acronyms………………………………………………………………………………….iii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………....iv List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………...v Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………vi Publications………………………………………………………………………………………...x Chapter 1………………………………………………………………….……………………….1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.0 Motivation……………………………………………………………………………………...1 1.1 Context of the Study…………………………………………………………………………....2 1.2 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………………………....2 1.3 Research Aim…………………………………………………………………………………..3 1.3.1 Using N-Tier Architecture…………………………………………………………….……..3 1.3.2 Using Java Enterprise Edition and CORBA……………………………….……………..…..4 1.4 Methodology………………………………………………………………………………..….5 1.5 Limitations and Scope of the Study………………………………………………………..…..5 1.6 Thesis Outline……………………………………………………………………………….…6 Chapter 2…………………………………………………………...…..……………………….…7 Research Background…………………………….………………………...………………….....7 2.1 CIS Overview………………………………………………………………………………..…8 2.2 Features and Functions of Campus Information Systems…………………………………….10 2.3 CIS Quality Attributes…………………………………………………………….……….….11 2.3.1 Accessibility…………………………………………………………………………….…..11 2.3.2 Security…………………………………………………………….………………….…….11 2.3.3 Performance…………………………………………………………………………………11 2.3.4 Scalability……………...……………………………………………………………………12 2.3.5 Flexibility…………………………………………………………………………….……..12 2.3.6 Maintenance…………………………………………………………………………….…..12 2.4 Extended CIS Quality Attributes………………………………………………………..….....13 viii 2.5 Existing Campus Information Systems………………………………………………….……13 2.5.1 Student Soft………………………………………………………………………….……...13 2.5.2 PPMS………………………………………………………………………………..………14 2.5.3 Premium System………………………………………………………………………….....14 2.6 Review of Tools and Technology……………………………………………………….……15 2.6.4 Java Platform, Enterprise Edition………………………………………………….……….19 2.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….………..21 Chapter 3………………………………………………………………………….…….………..22 FNU-CIS Overview……………………………………………………………………….……..22 3.1 FNU-CIS Description………………………………………………………………….……..22 3.1.1 Student Registration and Enrollment…………………………………………….…………22 3.1.2 Student and Employee Data……………………………………………………….………..23 3.1.3 Course Work and Exam Information……………………………………………….………23 3.1.4 Program Information……………………………………………………………….……….23 3.1.5 Financial Information……………………………………………………………….………24 3.1.6 Human Resource Information…………………………………………………….………...24 3.2 Functional Requirements………………………………………………………….……….….24 3.2.1 Use Case………………………………………………………………………….…….…...25 3.2.2 Use Case Descriptions………………………………………………………….…….……..26 3.3 Non Functional Requirements…………………………………………………….…….…….28 3.4 Object Oriented Analysis………………………………………………………….…….……30 3.4.1 Class Diagrams…………………………………………………………………….….…….30 3.5 System Functional Specification……………………………………………………….….….33 3.5.1 Sequence Diagrams…………………………………………………………………..……..33 3.5.2 Student Login………………………………………………………….……………………33 3.5.3 Student Enrollment…………………………………………………………..……………..34 3.6 Evaluation of FNU-CIS……………………………………………………………………….35 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………………..……………..36 Prototype FNU-CIS Software Architecture………………………………….…….…………..38 4.1 FNU-CIS Software Architecture…………………………………………………..………….38 4.2 FNU-CIS Deployment Diagram……………………………………………….…..………….39 ix 4.3 Object Oriented Design……………………………………………………………...………..42 4.4 Login Class Interaction Diagram…………………………………………………..…………43 4.5 Enrollment Class Interaction Diagram………………………………………………..………45 4.6 Dynamic Object Oriented Design ……………………………………...……………………..47 4.6.1 Student Login……………………………………………………….………………………47 4.6.2 Enrollment…………………………………………………………….…………………….48 4.7 Implementation Details…………………………………………………….…………………49 4.8 Summary…………………………………………………………………..………………….58