Figure 5-3 shows nodes associated with the project management system, but how are those nodes related? A specialized type of association, called a communication association, addresses the question of how nodes are related. (Associations are discussed in Chapter 3.)
A communication association between
nodes indicates a communication
path between the nodes that allows components on the nodes to
communicate with one another. A communication association is shown as
a solid-line between nodes. Figure 5-12 shows that
the Business-Processing Server
has a communication
association with the Desktop Client
,
Printer
, and Database Server
nodes.
Figure 5-13 combines Figure 5-8
and Figure 5-12 to show how components are related
to nodes. Notice that if two components are related and reside on
different nodes, the nodes must have a communication association
between them to allow the components to communicate; otherwise, the
components are not able to communicate and be related to one another.
For example, if the communication association between the
Desktop
Client
and
Business-Processing
Server
nodes was removed, the User
Interface
component could not be related to the
IBusiness Processing
interface and
Security
component. If the communication
association between the Business-Processing
Server
and Database
Server
nodes was removed, the
Data
component could not be related to the
Security
component, and the
Business
Processing
component
could not be related to the IProducible
and
IConsumable
interfaces.
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