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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2443–2446Cite as

Multitier Architecture

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Synonyms

Multi-layered architecture; n-tier architecture

Definition

A Multi-tier Architecture is a software architecture in which different software components, organized in tiers (layers), provide dedicated functionality. The most common occurrence of a multi-tier architecture is a three-tier system consisting of a data management tier (mostly encompassing one or several database servers), an application tier (business logic) and a client tier (interface functionality). Novel deployments come with additional tiers. Web information systems, for instance, encompass a dedicated tier (web tier) between client and application layer.

Conceptually, a multi-tier architecture results from a repeated application of the client/server paradigm. A component in one of the middle tiers is client to the next lower tier and at the same time acts as server to the next higher tier.

Historical Background

Early generation software systems have been built in a monolithic way. This means that all the...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Databases and Information Systems Research Group, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Heiko Schuldt

Authors
  1. Heiko Schuldt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heiko Schuldt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Informatique et Communications, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Anastasia Ailamaki

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Schuldt, H. (2018). Multitier Architecture. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_652

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