Affiliations: Institute for Information Transmission Problems,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia | Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State
University), Dolgoprudny, Russia
Abstract: In the paper, hierarchical combinatorial synthesis of Web-hosting
system is described. The composition problem is examined as analysis and
selection of system component alternatives (e.g., hardware alternatives,
software alternatives, communication alternatives). The modular design process
is based on Hierarchical Morphological Multicriteria Design (HMMD) approach:
(i) design of a tree-like model for the system, (ii) generation of design
alternatives for each leaf node of the system model, (iii) generation of
criteria and their scales for each node of the system model, (iv) assessment of
the design alternatives upon the corresponding criteria, (v) multicriteria
analysis of the alternatives for system components/parts to get ordinal
estimates of quality for each design alternative, (vi) composing the selected
alternatives into a resultant combination or a composite design alternative for
the higher hierarchical level of the system model (while taking into account
ordinal quality of the alternatives above and ordinal quality of compatibility
between the alternatives). The multicriteria analysis of the design
alternatives and their composition is based on a hierarchical Bottom-Up
framework. A two-criteria combinatorial problem (morphological clique problem)
is used for the composition and Pareto-effective solutions are searched for. An
example of Web-hosting system consists of the following basic system parts: (a)
facilities (servers, telecommunication facilities), (b) Internet access, (c)
software part (Web server, Web technology). The set of basic criteria involves
the following: price, reliability, scalability, stability of work, maintenance
cost, etc. Numerical examples illustrate the system modeling and design
processes.
Keywords: modular system, hierarchy, morphological design, composition, web-based system
