Software Architecture Patterns in Microservices: A Systematic Mapping of the Literature

Abstract Microservices have been an essential theme in research and the software industry. Microservices emerged in recent years as a new class of software architecture based on Service-Oriented Architecture due to the massive adoption of cloud computing and the need to integrate legacy systems. Therefore, due to the amplification of this architecture, a systematic characterisation of the data about the main patterns adopted when implementing software with the microservices architecture can support developers, software architects and researchers of the field in the evolution of the systems. The main objective is to analyse architectural patterns with the purpose of characterising, with respect to Microservices, from the point of view of researchers in the context of theoretical and applied research. We started with a search on ACM, IEEE, WoS, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Springer. As a result, we obtained 2653 articles, from which 76 articles were selected to be evaluated in this study for producing a view of state-of-the-art patterns/architecture styles adopted in Microservice research. An additional result is the description of a catalogue of Microservices patterns.