  The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of emerging
network-centric software systems on the field of software architecture. We
first develop an insight concerning the term "network-centric" by presenting
its origin and its implications within the context of software architecture. On
the basis of this insight, we present our definition of a network-centric
framework and its distinguishing characteristics. We then enumerate the
challenges that face the field of software architecture as software development
shifts from a platform-centric to a network-centric model. In order to face
these challenges, we propose a formal approach embodied in a new architectural
style that supports overcoming these challenges at the architectural level.
Finally, we conclude by presenting an illustrative example to demonstrate the
usefulness of the concepts of network centricity, summarizing our
contributions, and linking our approach to future work that needs to be done in
this area.
