Service interface description languages such as WSDL, and related standards, are evolving rapidly to provide a foundation for interoperation between Web services. At the same time, Semantic Web service technologies, such as the Ontology Web Language for Services (OWL-S), are developing the means by which services can be given richer semantic specifications. Richer semantics can enable fuller, more flexible automation of service provision and use, and support the construction of more powerful tools and methodologies. Both sets of technologies can benefit from complementary uses and cross-fertilization of ideas. This paper shows how to use OWL-S in conjunction with Web service standards, and explains and illustrates the value added by the semantics expressed in OWL-S.

https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/263000/1/OWL-S-SWSWPC2004-final.pdf

Bringing semantics to web services: the OWL-S approach

We present an approach to hybrid semantic Web service matching that complements logic based reasoning with approximate matching based on syntactic IR based similarity computations. The hybrid matchmaker, called OWLS-MX, applies this approach to services and requests specified in OWL-S. Experimental results of measuring performance and scalability of different variants of OWLS-MX show that under certain constraints logic based only approaches to OWL-S service I/O matching can be significantly outperformed by hybrid ones.

/pdf/automated-semantic-web-service-discovery-with-owls-mx-3i8wfj09ur.pdf

Automated semantic web service discovery with OWLS-MX

Current industry standards for describing Web Services focus on ensuring interoperability across diverse platforms, but do not provide a good foundation for automating the use of Web Services. Representational techniques being developed for the Semantic Web can be used to augment these standards. The resulting Web Service specifications enable the development of software programs that can interpret descriptions of unfamiliar Web Services and then employ those services to satisfy user goals. OWL-S ("OWL for Services") is a set of notations for expressing such specifications, based on the Semantic Web ontology language OWL. It consists of three interrelated parts: a profile ontology, used to describe what the service does; a process ontology and corresponding presentation syntax, used to describe how the service is used; and a grounding ontology, used to describe how to interact with the service. OWL-S can be used to automate a variety of service-related activities involving service discovery, interoperation, and composition. A large body of research on OWL-S has led to the creation of many open-source tools for developing, reasoning about, and dynamically utilizing Web Services.

/pdf/bringing-semantics-to-web-services-with-owl-s-52kxa9d5zi.pdf

Bringing Semantics to Web Services with OWL-S

Different planning techniques have been applied to the problem of automated composition of web services. However, in realistic cases, this planning problem is far from trivial: the planner needs to deal with the nondeterministic behavior of web services, the partial observability of their internal status, and with complex goals expressing temporal conditions and preference requirements. We propose a planning technique for the automated composition of web services described in OWLS process models, which can deal effectively with nondeterminism, partial observability, and complex goals. The technique allows for the synthesis of plans that encode compositions of web services with the usual programming constructs, like conditionals and iterations. The generated plans can thus be translated into executable processes, e.g., BPEL4WS programs. We implement our solution in a planner and do some preliminary experimental evaluations that show the potentialities of our approach, and the gain in performance of automating the composition at the semantic level w.r.t. the automated composition at the level of executable processes.

Automated composition of semantic web services into executable processes

A framework for QoS-aware binding and re-binding of composite web services

Towards the ultimate goal of seamless interaction among networked programs and devices, industry has developed orchestration and process modeling languages such as XLANG, WSFL, and recently BPEL4WS Unfortunately, these efforts leave us a long way from seamless interoperation Researchers in the Semantic Web community have taken up this challenge proposing top-down approaches to achieve aspects of Web Service interoperation Unfortunately, many of these efforts have been disconnected from emerging industry standards, particularly in process modeling In this paper we take a bottom-up approach to integrating Semantic Web technology into Web services Building on BPEL4WS, we present integrated Semantic Web technology for automating customized, dynamic binding of Web services together with interoperation through semantic translation We discuss the value of semantically enriched service interoperation and demonstrate how our framework accounts for user-defined constraints while gaining potentially successful execution pathways in a practically motivated example Finally, we provide an analysis of the forward-looking limitations of frameworks like BPEL4WS, and suggest how such specifications might embrace semantic technology at a fundamental level to work towards fully automated Web service interoperation

/pdf/adapting-bpel4ws-for-the-semantic-web-the-bottom-up-approach-2f0m99u6ik.pdf

Adapting BPEL4WS for the semantic web: the bottom-up approach to web service interoperation

The ultimate goal for the Web services effort is seamless interoperation among networked devices and programs through the development of distributed computing infrastructure and Web standards. Industry has been fast off the mark with the development of computing infrastructure such as .NET and J2EE, Web service protocols such as SOAP, and a communication-level description language in WSDL. Likewise, orchestration and process modeling languages such as XLANG, WSFL, and most recently BPEL4WS, have been developed to represent Web service interactions through process models. Unfortunately, we are still a long way from seamless interoperation. Researchers in the Semantic Web community have taken up this challenge proposing top-down approaches to achieve aspects of Web Service interoperation based on techniques from artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, many of these efforts have been disconnected from emerging industry standards, particularly in process modeling. In this paper we take a bottom-up approach to integrating Semantic Web technology into Web services. Building on BPEL4WS, we present integrated Semantic Web technology for automating customized, dynamic discovery of Web services together with interoperation through semantic translation. We discuss the value of semantically enriched service interoperation and demonstrate its use in a practically motivated example. Finally, we provide an analysis of the forward-looking limitations of frameworks like BPEL4WS, and suggest that Web service interoperation specifications embrace semantic technology at a fundamental level to work towards fully automated Web service interoperation.

/pdf/a-bottom-up-approach-to-automating-web-service-discovery-56uhxfu25l.pdf

Daniel J. Mandell

Papers

Adapting BPEL4WS for the semantic web: the bottom-up approach to web service interoperation

A Bottom-Up Approach to Automating Web Service Discovery, Customization, and Semantic Translation

Automating Web Service Discovery, Customization, and Semantic Translation with a Semantic Discovery Service.