A Context Map as the Basis for a Microservice Architecture for the Connected Car Domain

Abstract

In the near future cars will have two properties: They will be electrically powered and they will be connected to the Internet. Such cars will provide a huge amount of sensor data which can be accessed via web APIs in order to develop innovative connected car applications, such as traffic control, hazard warning, assisted or even autonomous driving. However, current software solutions in this field are mainly monoliths solving single problems in an isolated way. Therefore, we propose a systematic approach by which each single connected car application becomes part of a microservice architecture. This approach requires a sound and well-elaborated domain model from which the microservices' APIs and implementation of the applications can be systematically derived. The main contribution of this paper is a context map for the connected car domain. We demonstrate a structured software development approach with the example of a mobile application, the Electric Car Charger, by showing how this application is integrated into the context map and, thus, into a connected car microservice architecture.