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Choosing the proper boundaries between functions is perhaps the primary activity of the
computer system designer. Design principles that provide guidance in this choice of function
placement are among the most important tools of a system designer. This paper discusses one
class of function placement argument that has been used for many years with neither explicit
recognition nor much conviction. However, the emergence of the data communication network as
a computer system component has sharpened this line of function placement argument by making
more apparent the situations in which and reasons why it applies. This paper articulates the
argument explicitly, so as to examine its nature and to see how general it really is. The argument
appeals to application requirements, and provides a rationale for moving function upward in a
layered system, closer to the application that uses the function. We begin by considering the
communication network version of the argument. |
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