Business Level Service-Oriented Enterprise Application Integration

In this paper we propose a new approach for service-oriented enterprise application integration (EAI). Unlike current EAI solutions, which mainly focus on technological aspects, our approach allows business domain experts to get more involved in the integration process. First, we provide a technique for modeling application services at a sufficiently high level of abstraction for business experts to work with. Next, these business experts can model the orchestration as well as the information mappings that are required to achieve their integration goals. Our mediation framework then takes over and realizes the integration solution by transforming these models to existing service orchestration technology

Distributed aspect-oriented service composition for business compliance governance with public service processes

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) offers a technical foundation for Enterprise Application Integration and business collaboration through service-based business components. With increasing process outsourcing and cloud computing, enterprises need process-level integration and collaboration (process-oriented) to quickly launch new business processes for new customers and products. However, business processes that cross organisations’ compliance regulation boundaries are still unaddressed. We introduce a distributed aspect-oriented service composition approach, which enables multiple process clients hot-plugging their business compliance models (business rules, fault handling policy, and execution monitor) to BPEL business processes

Ontology-based patterns for the integration of business processes and enterprise application architectures

Increasingly, enterprises are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge the gap between business and technology and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition to service architecture descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of software. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern definition, extension and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-driven application integration is demonstrated

Software Solutions for Agile Business

Businesses, like people, are continuously evolving and as such face rapid and continual change. As markets and customer needs evolve, enterprises must respond with new ways to attract and retain customers and partners, increase operational efficiency, and achieve greater visibility into their business processes. IT staff see business processes through the lens of the low-level parts of the flow, rather than at the business level. As a result, they aren't capable of implementing the processes so that they will meet continuously changing business requirements, thus impeding business agility. Business users are increasingly demanding that they have control over their own business processes - and so, are requiring systems that put control of the flow and logic into their hands, not those of IT. An Enterprise Service Bus based on a Service Oriented Architecture could be a solution and tie together the notions of service oriented process, service oriented integration and event-driven, message based interaction into a single environment that enables users to combine their assets and information from multiple points of view.Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), loosely coupled events

CSMA

Since the beginning of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm, with its various implementation technologies such as Web services, the focus of industrial communities has been on providing tools that would allow seamless and flexible application integration within and across enterprises\u27 boundaries. In this paper, the authors present a Context-based, Service-oriented Modeling and Analysis (CSMA) method that guides service engineers in their choices of identifying, defining, and analyzing adaptable business services. The proposed method is business centric and comprises a set of structured steps grouped in two phases. Besides, the CSMA embraces Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) principles to model and refine adaptable business services models in the PIM level. The results from a pilot validation of CSMA for SOA enablement of a realistic enterprise training solutions are also presented

Behaviour and integration of service-oriented automation and production devices at the shop-floor

Automation and manufacturing systems are changing in the direction of cooperative ecosystems with heterogeneous entities. An important feature that should be considered is the vertical integration from the business needs down to the shop-floor where the real action takes place. This paper analyses the integration of shop-floor devices into the IT-enterprise but maintaining also a certain degree of independence in terms of behaviour. Service-oriented paradigm is used as the main backbone due its proven merits in the business levels and recently also in automation and production systems. In the provided example, high-level Petri nets (HLPN) demonstrate a set of useful features, namely the partial behaviour description and analysis and some parameters in the integration. The resulting application leads to an easy integration of autonomous devices in the IT-enterprise, taking especially in account the requirements of the shop-floor level.The authors would like to thank the European Commission and the partners of the EU IST FP6 project SOCRADES, the EU FP6 (I*PROMS), and the EC ICT FP7 project ‘Cooperating objects network of excellence’ (CONET) for their support

Semantic Platform for building coherent net of smart services

Information infrastrucrure of modern cities has been developping incredibly fast over last decades. Improvement of all kinds of services has been impatiently demanded by end users in all domains who where forced to keep up-to-date not to lose ground in their spheres of interest. As a result, the majority of services used now are high-quality services that meet the extended requirements of end users. They can be definitely called smart services. The proplem is that there are a lot of services, but they are not compatible with each other. They can hardly be considered as elements of complicated business processes. It leads to creation of new services with duplicating functionality. Observed dynamics of service market development and its short term prediction clearly shows that in near future it will be impossible to satisfy all requests for new services and service infrastructure will become overheated. At the level of enterprises the problem is commonly solved by means of enterprise service bus, at the level of WWW – due to building and overall application of semantic web services. For the level of cities still there are no solutions that allow building complex logical structures based on existing services. The most obvious way for services integration is their unification. Even this simple solution is unimplementable for two reasons. First, it requires huge resources that depend on the total number of services. Second, it can affect the functionality of the services that is inadmissible for end users. So, one can say that at the level of the city integration solutions based on enterprise service bus are too light but Internet oriented solutions such as semantic web servises are too heavy. In this paper we propose a platform for agile service integration that allows linking services using semantic technologies. The platform does not generate additional requirements to services or imposes any restrictions. It supports linking services and, thus, building a net of services. Furthermore, it can reveal possible links between services that can enrich the service infrastructure. Sematic technologies form the base for integration platform. The services and their peculiar features are described in the platform ontology using OWL language. The OWL description of the services clarifies reasonable cases and ways for services usage. Similar approach is used for describing logic of complex services application. The processes of services interaction are defined in ontologies as well. For logic description BPEL is used

Web service control of component-based agile manufacturing systems

Current global business competition has resulted in significant challenges for manufacturing and production sectors focused on shorter product lifecyc1es, more diverse and customized products as well as cost pressures from competitors and customers. To remain competitive, manufacturers, particularly in automotive industry, require the next generation of manufacturing paradigms supporting flexible and reconfigurable production systems that allow quick system changeovers for various types of products. In addition, closer integration of shop floor and business systems is required as indicated by the research efforts in investigating "Agile and Collaborative Manufacturing Systems" in supporting the production unit throughout the manufacturing lifecycles. The integration of a business enterprise with its shop-floor and lifecycle supply partners is currently only achieved through complex proprietary solutions due to differences in technology, particularly between automation and business systems. The situation is further complicated by the diverse types of automation control devices employed. Recently, the emerging technology of Service Oriented Architecture's (SOA's) and Web Services (WS) has been demonstrated and proved successful in linking business applications. The adoption of this Web Services approach at the automation level, that would enable a seamless integration of business enterprise and a shop-floor system, is an active research topic within the automotive domain. If successful, reconfigurable automation systems formed by a network of collaborative autonomous and open control platform in distributed, loosely coupled manufacturing environment can be realized through a unifying platform of WS interfaces for devices communication. The adoption of SOA- Web Services on embedded automation devices can be achieved employing Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS) protocols which encapsulate device control functionality as provided services (e.g. device I/O operation, device state notification, device discovery) and business application interfaces into physical control components of machining automation. This novel approach supports the possibility of integrating pervasive enterprise applications through unifying Web Services interfaces and neutral Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message communication between control systems and business applications over standard Ethernet-Local Area Networks (LAN's). In addition, the re-configurability of the automation system is enhanced via the utilisation of Web Services throughout an automated control, build, installation, test, maintenance and reuse system lifecycle via device self-discovery provided by the DPWS protocol...cont'd

From service-oriented architecture to service-oriented enterprise

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was originally motivated by enterprise demands for better business-technology alignment and higher flexibility and reuse. SOA evolved from an initial set of ideas and principles to Web services (WS) standards now widely accepted by industry. The next phase of SOA development is concerned with a scalable, reliable and secure infrastructure based on these standards, and guidelines, methods and techniques for developing and maintaining service delivery in dynamic enterprise settings. In this paper we discuss the principles and main elements of SOA. We then present an overview of WS standards. And finally we come back to the original motivation for SOA, and how these can be realized

Service-oriented infrastructure to support the control, monitoring and management of a shop floor system

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresService-oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm is becoming a broadly deployed standard for business and enterprise integration. It continuously spreads across the distinct layers of the enterprise organization and disparate domains of application, envisioning a unified communication solution. Service-oriented approaches are also entering the industrial automation domain in a top-down way. The recent application at device level has a direct impact on how industrial automation deployments will evolve. Similarly to other domains, the crescent ubiquity of smart devices is raising important lifecycle concerns related to device control, monitoring and management. From initial setup and deployment to system lifecycle monitoring and evolution, each device needs to be taken into account and to be easily reachable. The current work includes the specification and development of a modular, adaptive and open infrastructure to support the control, monitoring and management of devices and services in an industrial automation environment, such as a shop floor system. A collection of tools and services to be comprised in this same infrastructure will also be researched and implemented. Moreover, the main implementation focuses on a SOA-based infrastructure comprising SemanticWeb concepts to enhance the process of exchanging a device in an industrial automation environment. This is done by assisting (and even automate)this task supported by service and device semantic matching whenever a device has a problem. The infrastructure was implemented and tested in an educational shop floor setup composed by a set of distributed entities each one controlled by its own SOAready PLC. The performed tests revealed that the tasks of discovering and identifying new devices, as well as providing assistance when a device is down offered a valuable contribution and can increase the agility of the overall system when dealing with operation disruptions or modifications at device level