E-Commerce Website Architecture Design
Tech Stack
Backend: Java 8 (Spring Boot Framework)
Frontend: AngularJS
Message Broker: Apache Kafka
Caching: Redis
Cloud Provider: AWS
Key Components
1. Frontend (User Interface):
o Developed using AngularJS for dynamic and responsive user experience.
o Deployed on AWS CloudFront and S3 for fast content delivery.
2. Backend (Business Logic):
o Java 8 with Spring Boot for RESTful APIs and business logic.
o Deployed on AWS Elastic Beanstalk or EC2 instances.
3. Database:
o AWS RDS (e.g., MySQL or PostgreSQL) for transactional data.
o DynamoDB for catalog and session data.
4. Caching Layer:
o Redis for caching frequently accessed data (e.g., product details, user sessions).
o Deployed using AWS ElastiCache.
5. Message Broker:
o Apache Kafka for asynchronous communication.
o Used for order processing, notifications, and analytics.
6. Storage:
o AWS S3 for storing static assets like images, videos, and documents.
7. Authentication & Authorization:
o AWS Cognito for user management and secure authentication.
8. Load Balancer:
o AWS Application Load Balancer for distributing traffic across backend instances.
9. Monitoring & Logging:
o AWS CloudWatch for monitoring application performance.
o ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for log aggregation and analysis.
10. CI/CD Pipeline:
o AWS CodePipeline and CodeDeploy for continuous integration and deployment.
11. Content Delivery Network (CDN):
o AWS CloudFront for delivering frontend assets with low latency.
Low-Level Architecture
Microservices
Each microservice is built using Spring Boot and exposes RESTful APIs.
Examples of microservices:
o User Service: Handles user registration, authentication, and profile management.
o Product Service: Manages product catalog and inventory.
o Order Service: Handles order placement, tracking, and history.
o Payment Service: Integrates with third-party payment gateways.
Kafka and Consumer Groups
Kafka is used for asynchronous communication between microservices.
Topics:
o order-events: Captures order creation and status updates.
o inventory-updates: Tracks inventory changes.
o payment-events: Handles payment processing updates.
Consumer Groups:
o Each microservice has a dedicated consumer group to process messages from
specific topics.
o Example: The Order Service consumes messages from the order-events topic to
update order statuses.
Performance Optimization and Scalability with Kafka
1. Decoupling Services:
o Kafka topics buffer events between producers and consumers, allowing them to
operate independently.
2. Scalability Through Partitioning:
o Topics are divided into partitions, enabling parallel processing by multiple consumers
within a group.
3. Load Distribution:
o Consumer groups share the load by assigning partitions to different consumers,
supporting horizontal scaling.
4. Efficient Data Processing:
o Kafka ensures sequential processing within partitions while distributing workloads
across partitions.
5. Event Replay and Recovery:
o Kafka retains messages for a configurable period, allowing reprocessing of events in
case of failures.
6. Real-Time and Batch Processing:
o Supports streaming for real-time updates and batch processing for analytics.
7. Reduced Latency:
o Asynchronous communication minimizes delays and increases throughput.
Redis
Redis is used as a distributed cache for improving performance.
Examples:
o Caching product details to reduce database queries.
o Storing user session data for faster authentication.
AWS Tools
Elastic Beanstalk/EC2: Hosts the backend microservices.
RDS: Stores relational data such as user accounts, orders, and transactions.
DynamoDB: Stores non-relational data such as product catalog and user sessions.
S3: Stores static files such as product images and videos.
ElastiCache: Manages Redis for caching.
CloudWatch: Monitors microservice performance and logs.
CodePipeline & CodeDeploy: Automates build and deployment pipelines.
Cognito: Provides secure user authentication.
Secure Data Flow and Network Interaction
1. User Interaction:
o Users access the frontend application hosted on AWS CloudFront and S3 over HTTPS.
o AngularJS communicates with backend REST APIs securely using HTTPS.
2. Load Balancing:
o Requests are routed through AWS Application Load Balancer, ensuring secure and
balanced traffic distribution.
o ALB uses SSL/TLS for secure communication.
3. Backend Communication:
o Microservices interact with each other over a private VPC network in AWS.
o Internal communication between microservices uses HTTPS and secure Kafka
protocols.
4. Message Broker (Kafka):
o Kafka topics are encrypted using SSL/TLS.
o Authentication and authorization are enforced for Kafka producers and consumers.
5. Data Storage:
o AWS RDS and DynamoDB encrypt data at rest using AWS KMS (Key Management
Service).
o Data in transit to and from databases is encrypted using SSL/TLS.
6. Caching Layer:
o Redis instances are deployed in a private subnet with encryption enabled.
o Redis communication uses secure TLS connections.
7. Static Content Storage:
o AWS S3 stores static assets with server-side encryption enabled.
o Access to S3 is restricted using IAM roles and policies.
8. Authentication & Authorization:
o AWS Cognito secures user authentication with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and
token-based authorization.
9. Monitoring and Logging:
o AWS CloudWatch collects logs and metrics securely.
o Sensitive data in logs is masked or encrypted.
10. CI/CD Pipeline:
o CodePipeline and CodeDeploy use IAM roles for secure deployment processes.
Real-Time Scenario for Kafka Consumer Groups
Scenario: Order Processing in the E-Commerce System
1. Event Flow:
o When a customer places an order, the Order Service publishes an event to the
order-events Kafka topic.
o The event contains details like order ID, user ID, product IDs, quantities, and payment
status.
2. Consumer Groups:
o Multiple services consume events from the order-events topic:
Inventory Service (Consumer Group 1): Updates stock levels for the ordered
products.
Notification Service (Consumer Group 2): Sends order confirmation emails
or SMS to the customer.
Analytics Service (Consumer Group 3): Logs the order data for generating
business insights.
3. Parallel Processing:
o Each consumer group operates independently. For example:
If the order-events topic has 10 partitions and the Inventory Service has 5
instances in its consumer group, each instance processes 2 partitions in
parallel.
This setup ensures faster stock updates without bottlenecking other services
like notifications or analytics.
4. Scalability:
o During high traffic (e.g., flash sales), new consumer instances can be added to the
Inventory Service group.
o Kafka automatically reassigns partitions to the new instances, enabling horizontal
scaling and faster processing.
5. Fault Tolerance:
o If one instance in a consumer group fails, Kafka redistributes its partitions to the
remaining instances.
o This ensures uninterrupted order processing.
6. Event Replay:
o If the Notification Service experiences downtime, it can replay missed events from
the order-events topic once it recovers, ensuring no customer misses a confirmation
message.
7. Data Consistency:
o Kafka guarantees that each partition is processed by only one consumer instance
within a group at a time, maintaining data consistency for related events.
This real-time scenario demonstrates how Kafka consumer groups enable efficient, scalable, and
fault-tolerant order processing in the e-commerce system.
