In addition to the Actor containment hierarchies, Layering provides another method to hierarchically structure a software system. Layering and actor hierarchies with port to port connections can be mixed on every level of granularity.
an ActorClass can define a Service Provision Point (SPP) to publish a specific service, defined by a ProtocolClass
an ActorClass can define a Service Access Point (SAP) if it needs a service, defined by a ProtocolClass
for a given Actor hierarchy, a LayerConnection defines which SAP will be satisfied by (connected to) which SPP
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The Layer Connections in this model define which services are provided by the ServiceLayer ( digitalIO and timer) |
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The implementation of the services (SPPs) can be delegated to sub actors. In this case the actor ServiceLayer relays (delegates) the implementation services digitalIO and timer to sub actors |
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Every Actor inside the ApplicationLayer that contains an SAP with the same Protocol as timer or digitalIO will be connected to the specified SPP |
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