Modeling Network Architecture: A Cloud Case Study

The Internet s ability to support a wide range of services depends on the network architecture and theoretical and practical innovations necessary for future networks. Network architecture in this context refers to the structure of a computer network system as well as interactions among its physical components, their configuration, and communication protocols. Various descriptions of architecture have been developed over the years with an unusually large number of superficial icons and symbols. This situation has created a need for more coherent systematic representations of network architecture. This paper is intended to refine the design, analysis, and documentation of network architecture by adopting a conceptual model called a thinging (abstract) machine (TM), which views all components of a network in terms of a single notion: the flow of things in a TM. Since cloud computing has become increasingly popular in the last few years as a model for a shared pool of networks, servers, storage, and applications, we apply the TM to model a real case study of cloud networks. The resultant model introduces an integrated representation of computer networks.