Software architecture system with embedded virtual router

A network system comprising at least two components of at least one appliance, each component configured to perform a physical cycle of operation on an article, and each component having its own software architecture implementation, each software architecture implementation including a plurality of software operating components, an internal communications network layer interface for facilitating network communications between the components, and a hardware abstraction layer for assigning addresses of connected electrical circuits on which the software operating components will operate, characterized by:

• an embedded virtual router formed of a collection of application program interfaces (“API's”), each having an individual named variable derived from the hardware abstraction layer independent of the assigned address, wherein a collaboration between a software architecture implementation and one or more software operating components across the network is independent of the architecture of the software architecture implementations.