Multi-Tier Architecture

When the multi-tier architecture [4], which is often referred to as n-tier architecture, is used, the application is split up into several discrete components. The most frequently used multi-tier architecture is the three-tier architecture (see Section  for more details).

An example of a multi-tier architecture is the five-tier model which may be defined as follows:

Client Tier

The client tier is formed by a web browser, an applet or rich clients.

Presentation Tier

The presentation tier is responsible for the display and consists for example of JSPs or servlets.

Business Tier

The business tier may contain the EJBs and other business objects.

Integration Tier

The integration tier allows the integration of other services (e.g. JDBC, JMS, connectors) to the system.

Resource Tier

The resource tier is responsible for the integration of the databases and other external systems that usually also contain the data.