17 research outputs found

    E-business framework enabled B2B integration

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    Standards for B2B integration help to facilitate the interoperability between organisations. These standards, often called e-business frameworks, guide integration by specifying the details for business processes, business documents and secure messaging. Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) is used in modern e-business frameworks instead of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) formats. Having XML as the data format is not enough for integration, but e-business frameworks are needed to guide how XML is used. This work analyses the many partly competing and overlapping e-business frameworks how they differ in support for business processes, documents and secure messaging. In addition, the effect of standardisation organisation to the outcome of the e-business framework is studied. In this work, one e-business framework, RosettaNet, is used to tackle the challenges of product development (PD) integrations. A proof-of-concept implementation of a RosettaNet integration is provided to support PD and the lessons learned are discussed. The current specifications lack good processes for PD integrations, while they fail in specifying the concepts needed for document management. Furthermore, there are interoperability problems due to a lack of expressivity of the schema languages to encode the business documents, and the current setup of integration takes a very long time. RosettaNet has a lot of flexibility in the specifications, and thus just supporting the same standard process is not enough for interoperability. With semantic technologies, many shortcomings of the current standards for B2B integration can be solved, as they make it possible to present constraints the current technologies have problems with. This work presents a practical case of B2B integration with semantic technologies and describes the benefits of applying such technologies.Standardit tukevat organisaatioiden vÀlistÀ jÀrjestelmÀintegraatiota. Integroinnin standardit mÀÀrittelevÀt organisaatioiden vÀlisiÀ liiketoimintaprosesseja, -dokumentteja sekÀ mÀÀrittelevÀt turvallisen tavan kommunikoida. Nykyaikaiset standardit ovat XML-perusteisia vanhemman EDI-formaatin sijaan. XML:n kÀyttö ei ole riittÀvÀsti takaamaan integraation onnistumista, vaan tarvitaan tarkempaa sopimista, miten XML:ÀÀ kÀytetÀÀn integraatiossa. Joukko yritystenvÀlisen integroinnin standardeja mÀÀrittelee tÀmÀn. TÀssÀ työssÀ analysoidaan useaa, osittain kilpailevaa, yritystenvÀlisen integroinnin standardia ja tutkitaan miten ne tukevat liiketoimintaprosessien, -dokumenttien ja turvallisen viestinvÀlityksen mÀÀrittelyjÀ ottaen huomioon myös standardointiorganisaation vaikutuksen lopputulokseen. TÀssÀ työssÀ RosettaNet-standardia sovelletaan tuotekehitykseen liittyvissÀ integroinneissa. TyössÀ esitetÀÀn prototyyppi tuotekehitystiedon integroinnista RosettaNetin avulla ja keskustellaan saavutetuista kokemuksista. Nykyiset spesifikaatiot tuotekehitysprosesseille ovat tarpeisiin riittÀmÀttömiÀ, koska tuki dokumenttien hallinnan kÀsitteistölle on puutteellinen. Myös RosettaNetin kÀyttÀmien XML-skeemakielien puutteellinen ilmaisuvoima aiheuttaa ongelmia dokumenttien yhteentoimivuudelle. LisÀksi integraation tekeminen on hidasta verrattuna tyypillisen tuotekehitysprojektin kestoon. RosettaNetin tarjoamissa spesifikaatioissa on paljon joustavuutta, joten saman standardiprosessin tukeminen ei tarkoita, ettÀ jÀrjestelmÀt ovat yhteentoimivia. Nykyspesifikaatioissa ja niissÀ kÀytettyjen skeema-kielten ilmaisuvoiman puutteet voidaan osittain paikata kÀyttÀmÀllÀ semanttisia teknologioita. TÀmÀ työ esittÀÀ, miten integraatioissa voidaan saavuttaa semanttisia teknologioita kÀyttÀmÀllÀ parempi yhteentoimivuus.reviewe

    Thinking outside the TBox multiparty service matchmaking as information retrieval

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    Service oriented computing is crucial to a large and growing number of computational undertakings. Central to its approach are the open and network-accessible services provided by many different organisations, and which in turn enable the easy creation of composite workflows. This leads to an environment containing many thousands of services, in which a programmer or automated composition system must discover and select services appropriate for the task at hand. This discovery and selection process is known as matchmaking. Prior work in the field has conceived the problem as one of sufficiently describing individual services using formal, symbolic knowledge representation languages. We review the prior work, and present arguments for why it is optimistic to assume that this approach will be adequate by itself. With these issues in mind, we examine how, by reformulating the task and giving the matchmaker a record of prior service performance, we can alleviate some of the problems. Using two formalisms—the incidence calculus and the lightweight coordination calculus—along with algorithms inspired by information retrieval techniques, we evolve a series of simple matchmaking agents that learn from experience how to select those services which performed well in the past, while making minimal demands on the service users. We extend this mechanism to the overlooked case of matchmaking in workflows using multiple services, selecting groups of services known to inter-operate well. We examine the performance of such matchmakers in possible future services environments, and discuss issues in applying such techniques in large-scale deployments

    Erweiterung einer Modellierungsmethodik fĂŒr serviceorientiertes GeschĂ€ftsprozessmanagement

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    The introduction of service-oriented architectures (SOA) in the enterprise context promises many advantages. For example, by composing existing services new capabilities can be provided quickly allowing a fast and agile reaction to changing market conditions. In order to support companies in a successful adoption of SOA, service-orientation must be integrated in their enterprise architecture. Many companies made high investments in the past modelling their enterprise architecture based on different modelling methods. The introduction of SOA is fostered if existing models can be reused and investments are preserved. Therefore, existing modelling methods must be extended by service-oriented concepts. This thesis extends the modelling method ARIS with concepts for service-oriented business process management. It contributes a graphical modelling language, which is tightly integrated with the existing ARIS modelling method. Besides a modelling language, a modelling method also consists of algorithms and applications using the content captured in the models. Therefore, this thesis develops three distinct applications based on the contributed modelling language. First, service discovery enables identifying services needed for business process automation. Second, the automated EPC to BPEL model transformation allows transforming a business process into an executable service orchestration. Third, semantic business process management formalises enterprise models so that they are machine processable. To evaluate the usefulness of the designed modelling language and the developed applications, two empirical case studies are conducted. The first case study evaluates the modelling language together with the applications service discovery and process transformation. The second case study evaluates the application semantic business process management. Both case studies demonstrate the usefulness and relevance of the modelling language as well as its applications. Hence, companies introducing service-oriented concepts can use the extended ARIS modelling method to document and analyse their service-oriented enterprise architecture.Serviceorientierte Architekturen (SOA) versprechen diverse Vorteile bei der Anwendung im Unternehmenskontext. So können z.B. durch Kombination unabhĂ€ngiger Services neue Dienste kurzfristig bereitgestellt werden, was zu einer höheren FlexibilitĂ€t und AgilitĂ€t des Unternehmens fĂŒhrt. Damit Unternehmen das SOA-Konzept erfolgreich umsetzen können, muss die Serviceorientierung in die Unternehmensarchitektur integriert sein. Viele Unternehmen haben in der Vergangenheit bereits in die Modellierung ihrer Unternehmensarchitektur auf Basis verschiedener Modellierungsmethodiken investiert. Damit das SOA-Konzept auf breite Akzeptanz stĂ¶ĂŸt, mĂŒssen die vorhandenen Modelle wiederverwendet werden. Dies wird erleichtert, wenn existierende Modellierungsmethodiken um serviceorientierte Modellierungskonzepte erweitert werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Modellierungsmethodik ARIS um Modellierungskonzepte fĂŒr serviceorientierte Unternehmensarchitekturen erweitert. Dazu wurde eine konkrete grafische Modellierungssprache entwickelt und in ARIS integriert. Da eine Modellierungsmethodik neben einer Modellierungssprache auch Algorithmen und Verfahren zur Auswertung der erstellten Modelle umfasst, wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit drei Anwendungen entwickelt. Mit der Servicesuche können zur GeschĂ€ftsprozessautomatisierung benötigte Services automatisch identifiziert werden. Mit der GeschĂ€ftsprozesstransformation können als EPK-Modell vorliegende GeschĂ€ftsprozesse automatisch in eine Serviceorchestrierung auf Basis von BPEL ĂŒberfĂŒhrt werden. Mit dem semantischen GeschĂ€ftsprozessmanagement werden GeschĂ€ftsprozesse soweit formalisiert, dass sie durch maschinelle Verfahren auswertbar sind. Um die NĂŒtzlichkeit und Relevanz der Modellierungsmethodik samt der entwickelten Anwendungen zu evaluieren, wurden zwei empirische Fallstudien durchgefĂŒhrt. In der ersten Fallstudie wurde die entwickelte Modellierungssprache sowie die Anwendungen Servicesuche und GeschĂ€ftsprozesstransformation untersucht. In Fallstudie zwei wurde die Anwendung semantisches GeschĂ€ftsprozessmanagement evaluiert. Beide Fallstudien haben die NĂŒtzlichkeit und Relevanz der Modellierungsmethodik und der Anwendungen bestĂ€tigt. Damit können Unternehmen auf Basis der in dieser Arbeit entwickelten Erweiterung von ARIS ihre serviceorientierte Unternehmensarchitektur dokumentieren und auswerten

    Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

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    Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

    An evaluation methodology and framework for semantic web services technology

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    Software engineering has been driven over decades by the trend towards component based development and loose coupling. Service oriented architectures and Web Services in particular are the latest product of this long-reaching development. Semantic Web Services (SWS) apply the paradigms of the Semantic Web to Web Services to allow more flexible and dynamic service usages. Numerous frameworks to realize SWS have been put forward in recent years but their relative advantages and general maturity are not easy to assess. This dissertation presents a solution to this issue. It defines a general methodology and framework for SWS technology evaluation as well as concrete benchmarks to assess the functional scope and performance of various approaches. The presented benchmarks have been executed within international evaluation campaign. The thesis thus comprehensively covers theoretical, methodological as well as practical results regarding the evaluation and assessment of SWS technologies

    An Investigation into Dynamic Web Service Composition Using a Simulation Framework

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    [Motivation] Web Services technology has emerged as a promising solution for creat- ing distributed systems with the potential to overcome the limitation of former distrib- uted system technologies. Web services provide a platform-independent framework that enables companies to run their business services over the internet. Therefore, many techniques and tools are being developed to create business to business/business to customer applications. In particular, researchers are exploring ways to build new services from existing services by dynamically composing services from a range of resources. [Aim] This thesis aims to identify the technologies and strategies cur- rently being explored for organising the dynamic composition of Web services, and to determine how extensively each of these has been demonstrated and assessed. In addition, the thesis will study the matchmaking and selection processes which are essential processes for Web service composition. [Research Method] We under- took a mapping study of empirical papers that had been published over the period 2000 to 2009. The aim of the mapping study was to identify the technologies and strategies currently being explored for organising the composition of Web services, and to determine how extensively each of these has been demonstrated and assessed. We then built a simulation framework to carry out some experiments on composition strategies. The rst experiment compared the results of a close replication of an ex- isting study with the original results in order to evaluate our close replication study. The simulation framework was then used to investigate the use of a QoS model for supporting the selection process, comparing this with the ranking technique in terms of their performance. [Results] The mapping study found 1172 papers that matched our search terms, from which 94 were classied as providing practical demonstration of ideas related to dynamic composition. We have analysed 68 of these in more detail. Only 29 provided a `formal' empirical evaluation. From these, we selected a `baseline' study to test our simulation model. Running the experiments using simulated data- sets have shown that in the rst experiment the results of the close replication study and the original study were similar in terms of their prole. In the second experiment, the results demonstrated that the QoS model was better than the ranking mechanism in terms of selecting a composite plan that has highest quality score. [Conclusions] No one approach to service composition seemed to meet all needs, but a number has been investigated more. The similarity between the results of the close replication and the original study showed the validity of our simulation framework and a proof that the results of the original study can be replicated. Using the simulation it was demonstrated that the performance of the QoS model was better than the ranking mechanism in terms of the overall quality for a selected plan. The overall objectives of this research are to develop a generic life-cycle model for Web service composition from a mapping study of the literature. This was then used to run simulations to replicate studies on matchmaking and compare selection methods

    Methods and Tools for Management of Distributed Event Processing Applications

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    Die Erfassung und Verarbeitung von Ereignissen aus cyber-physischen Systemen bietet Anwendern die Möglichkeit, kontinuierlich ĂŒber Leistungsdaten und aufkommende Probleme unterrichtet zu werden (Situational Awareness) oder Wartungsprozesse zustandsabhĂ€ngig zu optimieren (Condition-based Maintenance). Derartige Szenarien verlangen aufgrund der Vielzahl und Frequenz der Daten sowie der Anforderung einer echtzeitnahen Auswertung den Einsatz geeigneter Technologien. Unter dem Namen Event Processing haben sich dabei Technologien etabliert, die in der Lage sind, Datenströme in Echtzeit zu verarbeiten und komplexe Ereignismuster auf Basis rĂ€umlicher, zeitlicher oder kausaler ZusammenhĂ€nge zu erkennen. Gleichzeitig sind heute in diesem Bereich verfĂŒgbare Systeme jedoch noch durch eine hohe technische KomplexitĂ€t der zugrunde liegenden deklarativen Sprachen gekennzeichnet, die bei der Entwicklung echtzeitfĂ€higer Anwendungen zu langsamen Entwicklungszyklen aufgrund notwendiger technischer Expertise fĂŒhrt. Gerade diese Anwendungen weisen allerdings hĂ€ufig eine hohe Dynamik in Bezug auf VerĂ€nderungen von Anforderungen der zu erkennenden Situationen, aber auch der zugrunde liegenden Sensordaten hinsichtlich ihrer Syntax und Semantik auf. Der primĂ€re Beitrag dieser Arbeit ermöglicht Fachanwendern durch die Abstraktion von technischen Details, selbstĂ€ndig verteilte echtzeitfĂ€hige Anwendungen in Form von sogenannten Echtzeit-Verarbeitungspipelines zu erstellen, zu bearbeiten und auszufĂŒhren. Die BeitrĂ€ge der Arbeit lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: 1. Eine Methodik zur Entwicklung echtzeitfĂ€higer Anwendungen unter BerĂŒcksichtigung von Erweiterbarkeit sowie der ZugĂ€nglichkeit fĂŒr Fachanwender. 2. Modelle zur semantischen Beschreibung der Charakteristika von Ereignisproduzenten, Ereignisverarbeitungseinheiten und Ereigniskonsumenten. 3. Ein System zur AusfĂŒhrung von Verarbeitungspipelines bestehend aus geographisch verteilten Ereignisverarbeitungseinheiten. 4. Ein Software-Artefakt zur graphischen Modellierung von Verarbeitungspipelines sowie deren automatisierter AusfĂŒhrung. Die BeitrĂ€ge werden in verschiedenen Szenarien aus den Bereichen Produktion und Logistik vorgestellt, angewendet und evaluiert
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