Showing papers on "Services computing published in 2003"

Web Services: Concepts, Architectures and Applications

Abstract: Like many other incipient technologies, Web services are still surrounded by a substantial level of noise. This noise results from the always dangerous combination of wishful thinking on the part of research and industry and of a lack of clear understanding of how Web services came to be. On the one hand, multiple contradictory interpretations are created by the many attempts to realign existing technology and strategies with Web services. On the other hand, the emphasis on what could be done with Web services in the future often makes us lose track of what can be really done with Web services today and in the short term. These factors make it extremely difficult to get a coherent picture of what Web services are, what they contribute, and where they will be applied.Alonso and his co-authors deliberately take a step back. Based on their academic and industrial experience with middleware and enterprise application integration systems, they describe the fundamental concepts behind the notion of Web services and present them as the natural evolution of conventional middleware, necessary to meet the challenges of the Web and of B2B application integration. Rather than providing a reference guide or a "how to write your first Web service" kind of book, they discuss the main objectives of Web services, the challenges that must be faced to achieve them, and the opportunities that this novel technology provides. Established, as well as recently proposed, standards and techniques (e.g., WSDL, UDDI, SOAP, WS-Coordination, WS-Transactions, and BPEL), are then examined in the context of this discussion in order to emphasize their scope, benefits, and shortcomings. Thus, the book is ideally suited both for professionals considering the development of application integration solutions and for research and students interesting in understanding and contributing to the evolution of enterprise application technologies.

Service-oriented computing: concepts, characteristics and directions

Abstract: Service-oriented computing (SOC) is the computing paradigm that utilizes services as fundamental elements for developing applications/solutions. To build the service model, SOC relies on the service oriented architecture (SOA), which is a way of reorganizing software applications and infrastructure into a set of interacting services. However, the basic SOA does not address overarching concerns such as management, service orchestration, service transaction management and coordination, security, and other concerns that apply to all components in a service architecture. In this paper we introduce an extended service oriented architecture that provides separate tiers for composing and coordinating services and for managing services in an open marketplace by employing grid services.

Web services orchestration and choreography

Abstract: Combining Web services to create higher level, cross-organizational business processes requires standards to model the interactions. Several standards are working their way through industry channels and into vendor products.

Quality driven web services composition

Abstract: The process-driven composition of Web services is emerging as a promising approach to integrate business applications within and across organizational boundaries. In this approach, individual Web services are federated into composite Web services whose business logic is expressed as a process model. The tasks of this process model are essentially invocations to functionalities offered by the underlying component services. Usually, several component services are able to execute a given task, although with different levels of pricing and quality. In this paper, we advocate that the selection of component services should be carried out during the execution of a composite service, rather than at design-time. In addition, this selection should consider multiple criteria (e.g., price, duration, reliability), and it should take into account global constraints and preferences set by the user (e.g., budget constraints). Accordingly, the paper proposes a global planning approach to optimally select component services during the execution of a composite service. Service selection is formulated as an optimization problem which can be solved using efficient linear programming methods. Experimental results show that this global planning approach outperforms approaches in which the component services are selected individually for each task in a composite service.

A model for web services discovery with QoS

Abstract: Web services technology has generated a lot interest, but its adoption rate has been slow. This paper discusses issues related to this slow take up and argues that quality of services is one of the contributing factors. The paper proposes a new Web services discovery model in which the functional and non-functional requirements (i.e. quality of services) are taken into account for the service discovery. The proposed model should give Web services consumers some confidence about the quality of service of the discovered Web services.

Structured methodology and design patterns for web services

Abstract: System and method for designing and implementing Web Services according to a structured methodology and design patterns. Embodiments may incorporate a structured methodology, best practices and design patterns that address reliability, availability and scalability of Web Services architecture. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for integrating heterogeneous technology components into Web Services. Embodiments may provide a vendor-independent Web Services architecture framework and reusable Web Services design patterns, which may be used in creating end-to-end solutions based on past experience and best practices. Embodiments may include design patterns and best practices for delivering Web Services solutions with Quality of Services. One embodiment may provide a Business-to-Business Integration (B2Bi) integration framework for Web Services. Embodiments may provide a Web Security framework and design patterns for designing end-to-end Web Services security.

The Self-Serv environment for Web services composition

Abstract: Self-Serv aims to enable the declarative composition of new services from existing ones, the multiattribute dynamic selection of services within a composition, and peer-to-peer orchestration of composite service executions. Self-Serv adopts the principle that every service, whether elementary or composite, should provide a programmatic interface based on SOAP and the Web Service Definition Language. This does not exclude the possibility of integrating legacy applications, such as those written in CORBA, into the service's business logic. To integrate such applications, however, first requires the development of appropriate adapters. The paper considers how the mechanism for composing services in Self-Serv is based on two major concepts: the composite service and the service container.

Location-Based Services for Mobile Telephony: a study of users' privacy concerns

Abstract: Context-aware computing often involves tracking peoples' location. Many studies and applications highlight the importance of keeping people's location information private. We discuss two types of location- based services; location-tracking services that are based on other parties tracking the user's location and position-aware services that rely on the device's knowledge of its own location. We present an experimental case study that examines people's concern for location privacy and compare this to the use of location-based services. We find that even though the perceived usefulness of the two different types of services is the same, location- tracking services generate more concern for privacy than position-aware services. We conclude that development emphasis should be given to position-aware services but that location-tracking services have a potential for success if users are given a simple option for turning the location-tracking off.

IrisNet: an architecture for a worldwide sensor Web

Abstract: We discuss about the IrisNet (Internet-scale resource-intensive sensor network services) project at Intel Research, we design an architecture and build a system that enable easy deployment of such wide-area sensing services. We aim to provide the missing software components for realizing a worldwide sensor Web. Wide-area architectures for pervasive sensing enable a new generation of powerful distributed sensing services. A worldwide sensor Web, in which users can query, as a single unit, vast quantities of data from thousands or even millions of widely distributed, heterogeneous sensors. Internet-connected PCs that source sensor feeds and cooperate to answer users' queries will form the global sensor Web's backbone. Developers of wide-area sensing services (service authors) deploy the services on this distributed infrastructure.

Semi-automatic Composition ofWeb Services using Semantic Descriptions

Abstract: As web services become more prevalent, tools will be needed to help users find, filter and integrate these services. Composing existing services to obtain new functionality will prove to be essential for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications. We have developed a prototype that guides a user in the dynamic composition of web services. Our semi-automatic process includes presenting matching services to the user at each step of a composition, filtering the possibilities by using semantic descriptions of the services. The generated composition is then directly executable through the WSDL grounding of the services. We tested our system by generating semantic descriptions for some of the common services available on the web such as translator, dictionary and map services. We also applied our approach to a prototype sensor network environment where each sensor provides its data as

KAoS policy and domain services: toward a description-logic approach to policy representation, deconfliction, and enforcement

Abstract: We describe our initial implementation of the KAoS policy and domain services. While primarily oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, the services are also being adapted to general-purpose grid computing and Web services environments as well. The KAoS services rely on a DAML description-logic-based ontology of the computational environment, application context, and the policies themselves that enables runtime extensibility and adaptability of the system, as well as the ability to analyze policies relating to entities described at different levels of abstraction.

E-services: a look behind the curtain

Abstract: The emerging paradigm of electronic services promises to bring to distributed computation and services the flexibility that the web has brought to the sharing of documents. An understanding of fundamental properties of e-service composition is required in order to take full advantage of the paradigm. This paper examines proposals and standards for e-services from the perspectives of XML, data management, workflow, and process models. Key areas for study are identified, including behavioral service signatures, verification and synthesis techniques for composite services, analysis of service data manipulation commands, and XML analysis applied to service specifications. We give a sample of the relevant results and techniques in each of these areas.

SLAng: a language for defining service level agreements

Abstract: Application or web services are increasingly being used across organisational boundaries. Moreover, new services are being introduced at the network and storage level. Languages to specify interfaces for such services have been researched and transferred into industrial practice. We investigate end-to-end quality of service (QoS) and highlight that QoS provision has multiple facets and requires complex agreements between network services, storage services and middleware services. We introduce SLAng, a language for defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that accommodates these needs. We illustrate how SLAng is used to specify QoS in a case study that uses a web services specification to support the processing of images across multiple domains and we evaluate our language based on it.

System and method of dynamic service composition for business process outsourcing

Abstract: A system and method for capturing a plurality of business requirements using a Business Process Outsourcing Language (BPOL), an XML representation for expressing business process flow rules, preferences, business rules and event-action mappings as well as service links, to automate the process of generating business processes for use with Web services. BPOL is used to dynamically construct a search script for an advanced Web services discovery engine to find Web services from both UDDI registries and Web services Inspection Language (WSIL) documents and then create a qualified service list. Then a service selection problem is mapped into a solution space {0,1} for use by an optimization algorithm that performs second level service selection of the best set of services based on the requirements.

Analysis of Web Services Composition Languages: The Case of BPEL4WS

Abstract: Web services composition is an emerging paradigm for application integration within and across organizational boundaries. A landscape of languages and techniques for web services composition has emerged and is continuously being enriched with new proposals from different vendors and coalitions. However, little effort has been dedicated to systematically evaluate the capabilities and limitations of these languages and techniques. The work reported in this paper is a step in this direction. It presents an in-depth analysis of the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) with respect to a framework composed of workflow and communication patterns.

A case for service systems engineering

Abstract: A case is made for further developing a branch of systems engineering that focuses on problems and issues which arise in the service sector. We promulgate this special focus not only because of the size and importance of the service sector but also because of the unique opportunities that systems engineering can exploit in the design and joint production and delivery of services. We begin by considering the economic, technological and demographic contexts within which the service sector has flourished; we then address both services, especially emerging services, and systems engineering, followed by a discussion of how to advance the field of service systems engineering, and concluding with several remarks. In particular, a number of service systems engineering methods are identified to enhance the design and production/delivery of services, especially taking advantage of the unique features that characterize services — namely, services, especially emerging services, are information-driven, customer-centric, e-oriented, and productivity-focused.

Service innovation: organizational responses to technological opportunities and market imperatives

Abstract: In the most advanced service economies, services create up to three-quarters of the wealth and 85% of employment, and yet we know relatively little about managing innovation in this sector. The critical role of services, in the broadest sense, has long been recognized, but is still not well understood. Most research and management prescriptions have been based on the experience of manufacturing and high technology sectors. There is a clear need to distinguish which, if any, of what we know about managing innovation in manufacturing is applicable to services, what must be adapted, and what is distinct and different. Such is the goal of this book. This collection brings together academic research and management practice on innovation in services, and identifies a range of successful organizational responses to current technological opportunities and market imperatives. The contributors include leading researchers, consultants and practitioners in the field, who provide rigorous yet practical insights into managing and organizing innovation in services. Two themes help to integrate the contributions in this book: That generic good practices exist in the management and organization of innovation in services, which the authors seek to identify, but that these must be adapted to different contexts, specifically the scale and complexity of the tasks, the degree of customization of the offerings, and the uncertainty of the environment. That innovation in services is much more than the application of information technology (IT). In fact, the disappointing returns to IT investments in services have resulted in a widespread debate about the causes and potential solutions - the so-called "productivity paradox" in services. Instead here the authors adopt a broader notion of innovation, including technological, organizational and market change. The key is to match the configuration of organization and technology to the specific market environment.

IRS-II: a framework and infrastructure for semantic web services

Abstract: In this paper we describe IRS-II (Internet Reasoning Service) a framework and implemented infrastructure, whose main goal is to support the publication, location, composition and execution of heterogeneous web services, augmented with semantic descriptions of their functionalities. IRS-II has three main classes of features which distinguish it from other work on semantic web services. Firstly, it supports one-click publishing of standalone software: IRS-II automatically creates the appropriate wrappers, given pointers to the standalone code. Secondly, it explicitly distinguishes between tasks (what to do) and methods (how to achieve tasks) and as a result supports capability-driven service invocation; flexible mappings between services and problem specifications; and dynamic, knowledge-based service selection. Finally, IRS-II services are web service compatible - standard web services can be trivially published through the IRS-II and any IRS-II service automatically appears as a standard web service to other web service infrastructures. In the paper we illustrate the main functionalities of IRS-II through a scenario involving a distributed application in the healthcare domain.

Web services are not distributed objects

Abstract: Web services are frequently described as the latest incarnation of distributed object technology. This misconception, perpetuated by people from both industry and academia, seriously limits broader acceptance of the true Web services architecture. Although the architects of many distributed and Internet systems have been vocal about the differences between Web services and distributed objects, dispelling the myth that they are closely related appears difficult. Many believe that Web services is a distributed systems technology that relies on some form of distributed object technology. Unfortunately, this is not the only common misconception about Web services. We seek to clarify several widely held beliefs about the technology that are partially or completely wrong. Within the distributed technology world, it is probably more appropriate to associate Web services with messaging technologies because they share a common architectural view, although they address different application types. Web services technology will have a dramatic enabling effect on worldwide interoperable distributed computing once everyone recognizes that Web services are about interoperable document-centric computing, not distributed objects.

Federated identity management within a distributed portal server

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for federating identity management within a distributed portal server, leveraging Web services techniques and a number of industry standards. Identities are managed across autonomous security domains which may be comprised of independent trust models, authentication services, and user enrollment services. The disclosed techniques enable integrating third-party Web services-based portlets, which rely on various potentially-different security mechanisms, within a common portal page.

Modifying adoption research for mobile Internet service adoption: cross-disciplinary interactions

Abstract: One often meets the argument that the adoption of mobile Internet services is difficult to understand due to a lack of relevant research. However, much research has already been conducted on the adoption of basic mobile and traditional Internet services that are likely to converge into the services provided by the mobile Internet. In this article, we try to categorize four research directions relevant in understanding mobile Internet service adoption. We argue that because mobile Internet services are new, a lack of studies directly investigating the adoption these services is to be expected. However, we also argue that existing research directions provide valuable points of departure for further investigating and understanding the adoption of mobile Internet services. In particular, we suggest a cross disciplinary integration of the findings of four different research directions may improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms of individuals' adoption of mobile Internet services. In this article, we exemplify such an integration by suggesting how traditional adoption models in information systems research, such as the technology acceptance model or the theory of planned behavior, may be modified and extended when applied to study the adoption of mobile Internet services.

System and method for provisioning universal stateless digital and computing services

Abstract: A service provisioning system and method for providing remote access to digital services over a communications network, comprising a plurality of client devices connected to the communications network for requesting digital services from a plurality of service centers and presenting output from the digital services. The network operation center connected to the communications network authenticates client devices and users, manages sessions, and processes requests for digital services. A connector associated with each service center establishes a session with a client device specified by the network operation center and encapsulates the native protocols of the digital services within a remote interactive protocol. The remote interactive protocol includes information for generating a human-perceptible presentation on the client device, to provide a remote access to the digital services without modifying the hardware and software infrastructure of the service centers.

Autonomia: an autonomic computing environment

Abstract: The proliferation of Internet technologies, services and devices, have made the current networked system designs, and management tools incapable of designing reliable, secure networked systems and services. In fact, we have reached a level of complexity, heterogeneity, and a rapid change rate that our information infrastructure is becoming unmanageable and insecure. This had led researchers to consider alternative designs and management techniques that are based on strategies used by biological systems to deal with complexity, heterogeneity and uncertainty. The approach is referred to as autonomic computing. An autonomic computing system is the system that has the capabilities of being self-defining, self-healing, self-configuring, self-optimizing, etc. We present our approach to implement an autonomic computing infrastructure, Autonomia that provides dynamically programmable control and management services to support the development and deployment of smart (intelligent) applications. The Autonomia environment provides the application developers with all the tools required to specify the appropriate control and management schemes to maintain any quality of service requirement or application attribute/functionality (e.g., performance, fault, security, etc.) and the core autonomic middleware services to maintain the autonomic requirements of a wide range of network applications and services. We have successfully implemented a proof-of-concept prototype system that can support the self-configuring, self-deploying and self-healing of any networked application.

System and method for generating secure Web service architectures using a Web Services security assessment methodology

Abstract: System and method for designing and implementing secure Web Services according to a Web Services Security Assessment structured methodology and design patterns. Lifecycles of the Web Services Security Assessment structured methodology may include, but are not limited to: vision and strategy, architecture design, development, integration, and deployment. In one embodiment, security components may be identified based on one or more use case requirements. Web Services objects that need to be protected may be identified. The object relationship for security protection may be defined, and associated trust domains, security policy and strategy and threat profiles may be identified. Protection schemes for these Web Services objects may be generated. Web Services security design patterns may be applied. One embodiment may be implemented as a secure Web Services architecture design mechanism that may receive Web Services requirements as input and assist a user in designing and generating a secure Web Services architecture.

Towards Personalized Selection of Web Services

Abstract: Web services have gained an increasing popularity, however, also shown problems like their automatic discovery or deficiencies in interoperability. Because of today’s wide variety of services of-fered to perform a specific task, it is essential that users are sup-ported in the eventual selection of appropriate services. In this paper we present an extensive study of different useful techniques towards advanced personalization of Web service selection. We propose the partitioning of the user profile to support different steps of interaction with services and present techniques to per-sonalize each subsequent step. Our main contribution is an algo-rithm featuring the expansion of service requests by user-specific demands and wishes. Services not matching a certain profile are discarded on the fly and equally useful results of alternative ser-vices can be compared with respect to user provided strategies and preferences. We also present a case study to exemplify the application of our personalization techniques.

Designing business models for mobile ICT services

Abstract: Introduction The provisioning of mobile ICT services often requires firms with different resources (e.g. financial support and consumer base) and capabilities (e.g. telecommunication, payment, and security) that co-operate to create value for end users. Given the low success rate of inter-firm co operations (see e.g. Levine & Byrne, 1986; Harrigan, 1988; and Bleeke & Ernst, 1993) and the risks and cost involved introducing new technological innovations, it is not surprisingly that there is much attention of practitioners and academia for the concept of business models. We see a business model as the way a network of companies intends to create and capture value from the employment of technological opportunities. Designing business models is a complex undertaking because different requirements (e.g. technical, user, organisational and financial requirements) need to be accommodated and balanced. Design choices in one domain (e.g. technical domain) may effect those of the other domains (e.g. user domain). This interrelatedness of design choices complicates the design of viable business models for mobile services.

System and method for generating Web Service architectures using a Web Services structured methodology

Abstract: System and method for generating Web Services using a Web Services Structured Methodology. One embodiment may be implemented as a Web Services architecture design mechanism. Lifecycles of the Web Services design process may include vision and strategy, architecture design, development, integration, and deployment. In one embodiment, the Web Services architecture design mechanism may implement a structured methodology design process for Web Services. One embodiment may include a reusable Web Services design pattern catalog and a mechanism for maintaining and updating the catalog and for using the catalog to apply design patterns when designing and implementing Web Services. One embodiment may be used for Enterprise And Cross-Enterprise Integration of Web Services. One embodiment may be used for Legacy Mainframe Integration and Interoperability with Web Services.

Infrastructure for e-government Web services

Abstract: In efforts to use information and communication technologies for the civil and political conduct of government, many countries have begun supporting e-government initiatives. The ultimate goal is to improve government-citizen interactions through an infrastructure built around the "life experience" of citizens. To facilitate the use of welfare applications and expeditiously satisfy citizens' needs, we wrapped these applications in modular Web services. Adopting Web services in e-government enables government agencies to provide value-added services by defining a new service that outsources from other e-government services; to uniformly handle privacy issues: and to standardize the description, discovery, and invocation of social programs. The core of our research is to develop techniques to efficiently access e-government services while preserving citizens' privacy. To that end we designed and implemented an infrastructure called Web Digital Government.

Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures

Abstract: Introduction: A business trip in the not-too- distant future. Information technology used in this trip. Service-oriented architectures and Web Services. Forces affecting the adoption of Web Services and other integration techniques. Growing impact of Web Services. Service-oriented architectures and beliefs about enterprise architectures. Starting to adopt a service-oriented architecture. Part II: Managing change needed for a service-oriented architecture: Change will happen. Tips for managing change issues during development. Part III: Creating service-oriented architectures: Architectures at each stage of adoption for Web Services. Architectural options. Middle-tier architecture. Revisiting the business trip in the not-too-distant future. Part IV: Compendium of software technology for service-oriented architectures: Additional specification details. Quick reference guide. Index

System and method for integration of web services

Abstract: System and method for integrating Web Services using a Web Services Structured Methodology are described. Embodiments of a Web Services Structured Methodology may be used to integrate Web Services in Enterprise and Cross-Enterprise business systems, and to integrate legacy systems (e.g. legacy mainframe systems) with Web Services in Enterprise and Cross-Enterprise business systems. Embodiments may provide an integrated Web Services architecture design mechanism that may be used for Enterprise and Cross-Enterprise integration of Web Services. Embodiments may be used for Legacy Mainframe Integration and Interoperability with Web Services.