The Multi Tiers of PSO Architecture
As we discussed in our previous article , the always-on nature of PSO scheduling is unparalleled in the industry. In this and the following articles we deep dive into this architecture which enables PSO to be a truly always on, dynamic scheduling engine.
The Multi Tier Architecture
IFS PSO has been built on a framework of an multi tier architecture.
Client Tier - This is the layer through which users can interact with the PSO system. This can be via a graphical user interface such as the Scheduling workbench or can even consist of 3rd party applications or 3rd party web services.
Middle Tier - The middle tier is a collection of services through which depending on the service different operation / functions are performed. This tier acts as a bridge between the client tier (from where it gathers the requests) and the data tier (where transaction are executed)
Data Tier - This tier consists of all the databases where the data is physically stored and manipulated via queries
Data Segmentation tier - This tier enables the management of the data that is extracted from the data tier and fed to the scheduling and optimization tier. This includes breaking down of the data (if needed) into smaller pieces and gives each of this piece to the scheduling and optimization tier.
Scheduling and optimization tier - This tier runs one or more Dynamic scheduling engines which are responsible for ultimately building a schedule or a plan for a given dataset (or a part of the dataset). A dataset can be understood as a scheduling problem which needs to be solved.
It is important to note that while these tiers are separated logically, they can also be separated physically. Alternatively, you can host all these tiers in a single physical hardware (although this may not be recommended for a customer production environment)
Since the PSO architecture is separated both logically and physically, the following advantages are achieved
Logical Separation enables quicker development of individual components enabling faster time to value and has lower maintenance.
Physical Separation enables scalability. I.e., The ability to utilize multiple hardware instance to spread work and utilize more processing bandwidth when needed
This is the second article in the series of explaining the IFS PSO technical architecture. In our next article we will discuss the Client tier in detail.