A Graphical Paradigm for the Design and Analysis of Distributed Systems 1

Abstract: A graphical paradigm for the design, representation, and analysis of distributed systems is discussed. For the purposes of this paper, we use the term distributed system to define client/server, peer-to-peer, multi-tier and other non-traditional hardware/software solutions that are typified by applications which employ the resources of multiple platforms to perform business processes rather than being traditional mainframe solutions. The primary objective of the paper is to introduce a schema for the graphical representation of distributed systems and to demonstrate how existing techniques such as degradation analysis can be embodied in the proposed paradigm.