Question

You are responsible for the design of a communications switch that has to provide 24/7 availability, but which is not safety-critical. Giving reasons for your answer, suggest an architectural style that might be used for this system.

Answer 1

The clue here is in the question – the system is not safety critical so eliminates protection systems. However, there is a need for availability so the most appropriate architectural pattern is an N-version programming architecture or a replicated server architecture with each server running a different OS.