Problem Addressed
The problem addressed in the article titled “Client-server model of integrated production facilities” by Esfarjani and Nof is a client-server model of integrated production facilities. Distributed systems use three integrated technologies, among which the form of PC interaction in the client-server network is the main one. This article is devoted to the development of a client-server technology implementation model. The innovative feature of the model implemented in the article is the combination of presentation programs and application programs and their execution on a client computer. It supports both data input and displays operations and application operations. Access to information resources is provided by calls to the functions of a special library. Requests to information resources are sent over the network to a remote computer, such as a database server. It processes requests and returns the data blocks necessary for processing to the client.
This work is very important for the e-work system and the research topic. The model considered in the study is an integral component of the infrastructure of the e-commerce system. The use of e-commerce necessitates the development of additional components that were not previously used in the traditional environment (Castanada et al., 2018). It is this aspect, different from trading in traditional offline stores, that the article is devoted to. The authors are developing a new client-service model, integrating AI into it.
Background & Known Practice
The client-server computing model is associated with the emergence of open systems in the 1990s (Esfarjani & Nof, 1998). The term client-server was applied to the software architecture, consisting of two information processing processes: client and server. The client process requested some services, and the server process provided their execution (Zhang, 2019). At the same time, it was assumed that one server process could serve many client processes. The hardware implementation of this database management model was associated with the creation of local computer networks for the enterprise. In this regard, such an organization of the information processing process was called the client-server architecture.
To date, there are several types of client-server e-commerce architecture. All of them provide for the separation of the processes of providing services and sending requests for them on different computers on the network. Each of them performs their tasks independently of the others. In the known practice, client-server models are usually divided into three classes: one-, two- and three-tier (Esfarjani & Nof, 1998). A single-tier client-server architecture is one where all application programs are dispersed across workstations. They access a shared database server or a shared file server. A two-tier client-server architecture is one in which application programs are concentrated on the application server. They provide an interface for users to work with applications on a shared server.
New Methods & Results
The new methods used in the article were the use of AI when creating a client-server model. The approach to the architectural design process used by developers consists of innovative stages of architectural design. Firstly, the software system is structured as a set of relatively independent subsystems. When structuring the system, the interaction between subsystems, control modeling, and modular decomposition, most processes are determined by artificial intelligence. A basic model for managing relationships between parts of the system using AI is being developed (Esfarjani & Nof, 1998). Moreover, each subsystem defined in the first stage is divided into separate modules. AI also determines the types of modules and the types of their relationships.
The result of the architectural design process in this study is a document that displays the architecture of the system. It consists of a set of graphical diagrams representing the models of the system with an appropriate description. The description indicates which subsystems the system consists of and which modules each subsystem consists of. Graphical diagrams of the system models allow looking at the architecture of the client-server model using AI from different aspects.
Strengths & Limitations
The strength of this article is its novelty and scientific value: it contains new ideas that potentially have wide applications. Moreover, the authors have successfully approved the scientific priority of their development to modernize the existing technology. The research topic has high relevance and scientific novelty. In addition, the strengths of the article include compliance with strict editorial requirements for the structure and conciseness of the work. Due to the clearly stated information, the practical benefits of this scientific publication are obvious. The absence of unnecessary information and the capacity of its presentation allows using the technologies proposed by the authors in practice.
Despite the fact that, in general, this article does not have any shortcomings critical for perception, it still has some limitations. First of all, it is the text’s overloaded with references to other researchers’ opinions. Since the technology developed by the authors is positioned as innovative, the author’s opinion should be in the foreground. References to other people’s views should be conditioned by the author’s thoughts. Any such presentation should end with the opinion and arguments of authors and their critical position. However, this article has several thoughts where this criterion of strong scientific work is violated.
Evaluation
This article has made a significant contribution to my understanding of the issue under study, namely, the use of artificial intelligence in the development of communication between the client and the server. After working with it, I can formulate a topic, highlighting important and secondary aspects of the technology. The authors successfully used language as a communication tool: the text did not slow down the perception of scientific information. Instead, reading their work helped me to assimilate and structure both new knowledge and data obtained from other sources.
The research presented in this article is based on a four-level structure of creative analysis. It has high indicators at all levels of creativity – theoretical, methodological, technological, and practical. The practical level lies in the authors’ creative approach to the study of the existing. The technological level of creativity presupposes the presentation by the authors of the ordered stages of technology creation. At the same time, the article describes methods, techniques, principles, and recommendations distributed by stages while reflecting on repeated experiences. The methodology has an even higher level of generalization associated with the theoretical understanding of the practical application of techniques and technologies. Therefore, the theoretical and methodological aspects of the article can also be considered creative.
The contribution of employees to solving the tasks facing e-commerce organizations deserves high praise. Several criteria can be identified to measure the contribution to the research of this field, the significance of which in relation to this article is large-scale. First, the author’s interpretation of the client-service model as one of the conditions forming e-commerce is proposed. In addition, a new architectural model of server work has been developed based on the existing needs of the technology market in the use of artificial intelligence. However, there are also several open questions that create space for further research. In particular, it is the expansion of the use of the model and the evaluation of the received working protocols.
References
Castanada, P., Pratt, J., & Jordan, M. (2018). The influence of client-server symmetries on artificial intelligence. Journal of Computer Science and Software Engineering, 66(18), 136-141.
Esfarjani, K., & Nof, S. Y. (1998). The client-server model of integrated production facilities. International Journal of Production Research, 36(12), 3295-3321.
Zhang, Y. (2019). Research on key technologies of remote design of mechanical products based on artificial intelligence. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 60(13), 250-257.