Architectural characteristics of digital services enabled by embedded technology: A study on remote diagnostics services

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize the architecture of digital services that are enabled by embedded technology. Digitalization with embedded technology in physical products has become a common phenomenon. In spite of growing instance of such digitalization, little is known about the architectural characteristics of embedded technology enabled d ig ital services. Based on a research on vehicular remote diagnostics services, we characterize the architecture of such digital services. Following the framework on layered modular architecture continuum, our findings provide the following architectural characteristics: i) the architecture of the digital services spans along the layered modular architecture continuum, ii) the application program of the digital services is simultaneously de-coupled and partly coupled with the embedded devices, iii) there exist layers within layer of the digital services, iv) application program layer of the digital services is a closed innovation platform. © 2014 IEEE.