The document discusses architectural styles and decomposition techniques. It describes layers as hierarchical sets of subsystems that provide related services by utilizing underlying layers. Tiers partition a system into peer subsystems responsible for classes of services. Common architectural styles include pipes and filters, repository, client/server, model-view-controller, service-oriented, and peer-to-peer. Layers and tiers are often combined for complete decomposition, with subsystems divided into tiers and each tier organized into layers. The pipe and filter style focuses on dynamic interaction by processing data streams through filters connected by pipes.