Web Services Hybrid Dynamic Composition Models for Enterprises

Abstract

Web services are used in enterprise distributed computing technology including ubiquitous and pervasive computing and communication networks. Composition models of such Web services are an active research area. Classified as static, dynamic, and semiautomatic composition models, these models address different application areas and requirements. Thus far, the most successful practical approach to Web services composition, largely endorsed by industry, borrows from business processes’ workflow management. Unfortunately, standards subscribing to this approach fall under the static composition category, therefore the service selection and flow management are done a priori and manually. The second approach to Web services composition aspires to achieve more dynamic composition by semantically describing the process model of the Web service and thus making it comprehensible to reasoning engines and software agents. In this chapter, we attempt to bridge the gap between the two approaches by introducing semantics to workflow-based composition. We aim to present a composition framework based on a hybrid solution that merges the benefit of practicality of use and adoption popularity of workflow-based composition with the advantage of using semantic descriptions to aid both service developers and composers in the composition process and facilitate the dynamic integration of Web services into it.