Model-based engineering for microservice architectures using Enterprise Integration Patterns for inter-service communication

Abstract

Microservices need to communicate via inter-service communication mechanism. This leads to service integration that requires the aspect of messaging and event handling to be considered during the specification of microservices. Therefore, the application of Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP) in the context of the design of microservice architectures seems to be a promising approach for microservice architecture engineering. This paper presents a model-based approach for microservice architectural design and service integration through formal models using the UML and UML profiles. A domain model (bounded contexts) is used as a starting point. UML component diagrams are extended so that microservices can be modeled. Enterprise integration patterns are applied to the microservice diagrams providing a precise microservice specification that can be used for further simulations, transformations, or code generation tasks.