Architectural Characteristics of Digital Services Enabled by Embedded Technology: A Study on Remote Diagnostics Services

In this paper, we characterize the architecture of digital services that are enabled by embedded technology. Digitalization with embedded technology in physical products has become a common phenomenon. In spite of growing instance of such digitalization, little is known about the architectural characteristics of digital services enabled by embedded technology. Based on a research on vehicular remote diagnostics services, we characterize the architecture of such digital services. Following the framework on layered modular architecture continuum, our findings provide the following architectural characteristics: i) the architecture of the digital services spans along the layered modular architecture continuum, ii) the application program of the digital services is simultaneously de-coupled and partly coupled with the embedded devices, iii) there exist layers within layer of the digital services, iv) application program layer of the digital services is a closed innovation platform.