Architecture Design for Enhancing Direct Client-to-Microservice Communication in an E-Participation Platform for Local Administrative Organizations in Suratthani Province, Thailand

Abstract

Public participation is essential for governance in a democratic system. Local Administrative Organizations in Thailand typically provide websites and social media platforms such as Facebook Pages and the Line application for e-Participation. However, there is a lack of specific applications designed for e-Participation that ensure secure, efficient communication and support rapid information exchange. This research aimed to design and evaluate a direct client-to-microservice communication architecture for an e-Participation platform in Local Administrative Organizations in Surat Thani Province, Thailand. We adopted a microservice architecture based on Domain-Driven Design (DDD), along with an API-first design and a database-per-service pattern. A message broker was adopted for asynchronous inter-service communication. We implemented JSON Web Tokens (JWT) with AES-256 encryption for system security and used Apache JMeter for performance testing. The performance testing followed ISO/IEC 25010 standards under varying loads to assess throughput, response time, and resource utilization. The performance testing showed that the system throughput could handle 16.67 requests per second at 5,000 concurrent users, with zero error rate. The time behavior testing demonstrated that the system maintained an average response time of 41-46 milliseconds, well below 1,500 ms. The resource utilization test showed that the CPU peak value fell within the expected range, indicating that the system is highly stable, unaffected by CPU spikes, and efficient in memory use. Overall, the system successfully passed all performance criteria. This architecture enabled real-world usage of scalable, secure, and efficient e-Participation platforms for Local Administrative Organizations.