An approach to dynamic web service composition

Today, changeable requirements to modern web-oriented services demand their fast development and constant reengineering. This is realized via dynamic composition of services, allowing to estimate changes of both functional and nonfunctional service parameters. The last ones are considered using Web Services Agreement technique. Nevertheless, state-of-the-art SLA-aware methods are not able to consider all classes of non-functional parameters. They also don’t provide service run-time support and dynamic reconfiguration. The novel approach to dynamic Web Services Composition, extending SLA with QoS ontology, is described in the paper. It includes service selection agents that use the QoS ontology and WS-Agreements, allowing agents to choose the most appropriate service based on quality preferences exposed by service consumer. The proposed approach allows performing dynamic WS composition based on SLA, providing required values of QoS parameters, improving general QoS and decreasing service development and re-engineering time

A bargaining-specific architecture for supporting automated service agreement negotiation systems

The provision of services is often regulated by means of agreements that must be negotiated beforehand. Automating such negotiations is appealing insofar as it overcomes one of the most often cited shortcomings of human negotiation: slowness. Our analysis of the requirements of automated negotiation systems in open environments suggests that some of them cannot be tackled in a protocol-independent manner, which motivates the need for a protocol-specific architecture. However, current state-of-the-art bargaining architectures fail to address all of these requirements together. Our key contribution is a bargaining architecture that addresses all of the requirements we have identified. The definition of the architecture includes a logical view that identifies the key architectural elements and their interactions, a process view that identifies how the architectural elements can be grouped together into processes, a development view that includes a software framework that provides a reference implementation developers can use to build their own negotiation systems, and a scenarios view by means of which the architecture is illustrated and validatedComisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) SETI (TIN2009-07366)Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-2533 (Isabel)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2010-21744-C02-1Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2007-64119Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-02602Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-4100Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2008-04718-

A bargaining-specific architecture for supporting automated service agreement negotiation systems

The provision of services is often regulated by means of agreements that must be negotiated beforehand. Automating such negotiations is appealing insofar as it overcomes one of the most often cited shortcomings of human negotiation: slowness. Our analysis of the requirements of automated negotiation systems in open environments suggests that some of them cannot be tackled in a protocol-independent manner, which motivates the need for a protocol-specific architecture. However, current state-of-the-art bargaining architectures fail to address all of these requirements together. Our key contribution is a bargaining architecture that addresses all of the requirements we have identified. The definition of the architecture includes a logical view that identifies the key architectural elements and their interactions, a process view that identifies how the architectural elements can be grouped together into processes, a development view that includes a software framework that provides a reference implementation developers can use to build their own negotiation systems, and a scenarios view by means of which the architecture is illustrated and validatedComisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) SETI (TIN2009-07366)Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-2533 (Isabel)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2010-21744-C02-1Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2007-64119Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-02602Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-4100Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2008-04718-

Towards a contract-based interoperation model

Web Services-based solutions for interoperating processes are considered to be one of the most promising technologies for achieving truly interoperable functioning in open environments. In the last three years, the specification in particular of agreements between resource / service providers and consumers, as well as protocols for their negotiation have been proposed as a possible solution for managing the resulting computing systems. In this report, the state of the art in the area of contract-based web service applications is closely studied, identifying current limitations and possibilities. On the basis of this analysis, a general model for contract specification, negotiation, agreement, execution and management is introduced. Such a model has broad applicability both in electronic business integration and distributed knowledge management systems for decision support. Initial work presented here was completed in September 2005 and is published here as background for the European Commission funded project IST CONTRACT http://www.ist-contract.org/.Postprint (published version

Language support for service-level agreements for application-service provision

My thesis is that practical language support can be provided for Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) for Application-Service Provision (ASP), which is better than that provided by pre-existing languages in that: it provides greater assistance in expressing conditions that mitigate the risks inherent in ASP; and disputes related to agreements expressed in this manner may be more easily resolved in so as to respect the original intent of the parties. I support this thesis by establishing requirements for SLAs for ASP based on an account of a typical ASP infrastructure and business model. These identify the particular risks inherent in ASP, permit comparisons between ASP SLA languages, and guide the development of an abstract, extensible, domain-specific language, SLAng. SLAng is defined using a meta-modelling approach that allows a high degree of precision in the specification of its semantics, traceability from SLA to language specification, and the testing of the language and SLAs to ensure they capture the original intent of the parties. SLAng supports the expression of mutually-monitorable SLAs, for which the determination of compliance depends only on events visible to both client and provider of the service. I demonstrate that such SLAs are the most monitorable possible in a typical ASP scenario, given current monitoring technology, and describe an approximately-monitorable constraint on the accuracy of evidence used to administer such SLAs. SLAng is shown to be of practical use in a case study, evaluated against the original requirements, and compared with pre-existing languages. The evaluation of SLAng is enhanced using metrics developed to assist in assessing the contribution of a domain-specific language specification to encoding the meaning of statements in that language

Uncertainty in service provisioning relationships

Web services encapsulate some well-defined functionality such as data storage, computation or a business process. An organization can delegate responsibility for the provision of a Web service to another organization with the formation of a Service Provisioning Relationship (SPR). Such relationships enable organizations to specialize in the provision of those Web services for which they have a comparative advantage, and to outsource responsibility for any other functionality on which they are dependent to the Web services provided by other organizations. This specialization can lead to significant increases in organizational efficiency. The scale of such increases is determined by the extent to which the presence of uncertainty in the Quality of Service (QoS) can be addressed by the organizations in the SPR. The requester of a Web service can be uncertain of the willingness and ability of the provider to provision a Web service with a certain QoS. The provider of a Web service can be uncertain of his ability to provision a Web service to each requester with a certain QoS. These uncertainties can endanger the economic viability of such relationships, and mitigate any increases in organizational efficiency. This thesis provides a number of key contributions to address these uncertainties in order to retain the economic viability of these relationships for both organizations. The key contributions are: an institutional framework for trust in SPRs, a structured language for the representation of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) as a contingent contract, and a theoretical and practical methodology for the creation of SLAs which are optimal with regard to the objectives of an organization.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEPSRCGBUnited Kingdo

A methodology for automated service level agreement compliance prediction

PhD ThesisService Level Agreement (SLA) specification languages express monitorable contracts between service providers and consumers. It is of interest to determine if predictive models can be derived for SLAs expressed in such languages, if possible in a fashion that is as automated as possible. Assuming that the service developer or user uses some SLA specification languages during the service development or deployment process,the Service level agreement Compliance Prediction(SlaCP) methodology is proposed as a general engineering methodology for predicting SLA compliance.This methodology helps contractual parties to assess the probability of SLA compliance,as automatically as is feasible,by mapping an existing SLA on a stochastic model of the service and using existing numerical solution algorithms or discrete event simulation to solve the model.The SlaCP methodology is generic, but the methodology is mostly described,in this thesis,assuming the use of the Web Service Level Agreement(WSLA)and the Stochastic Discrete Event Systems (SDES)formalism.The approach taken in this methodology is firstly to associate formal semantics with WSLA elements in order to be understood mathematically precise.Then,a five-step mapping process between the source and the target formalisms is conducted.These steps include:mapping into model primitives,reward metrics,expressions for functions of the semetrics,the time at which the prediction occurs,and the ultimate probability of SLA compliance.The proposed methodology is implemented in a software tool that automates most of its steps using Mobius and SPNP.The methodology is evaluated using a case study which shows the methodology’s feasibility and limitations in both theoretical and practical terms.Tishreen University, Ministry of Higher Education in Syri

SLA Calculus

For modeling Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) and validating worst-case performance guarantees a deterministic modeling method with efficient analysis is presented. Upper and lower bounds for delay and workload in systems are used to describe performance contracts. The SLA Calculus allows one to combine model descriptions for single systems and to derive bounds for reaction time and capacity of composed systems with analytic means. The intended, but not exclusive modeling domain for SLA Calculus are distributed software systems with reaction time constraints. SOAs are a system design paradigm that encapsulate software functions in service applications. Due to their standardized interfaces and accessibility via networks, large systems can be composed from smaller services and presented as services again. A well-known implementation of the service paradigm are Web Services that allow applications with components connected by the Internet. Own services and those rented from providers can be transparently combined by users. Performance guarantees for SOAs gain importance with more complex systems and applications in business environments When a service is rented by a customer the provider agrees upon a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with conditions concerning interface, pricing and performance. Service reaction time in form of delay is an important part in many SLAs and subject to performance models discussed in this work. With SLAs providers implicate a maximum delay for their products when the customer limits the workload to their systems. Hence customers expect the contracted service provider to deliver the performance figures unless the workload exceeds the SLA. Since contract penalties could apply, providers have a natural interest in dimensioning their service in regard to the SLA. Even for maximum workloads specified in the contracts the worst-case delay has to hold. Moreover, due to the compositional nature of Web Services, customers become providers themselves when they offer their service compositions to others. Again, worst-case performance bounds are of major interest here. Analyzing models of SOAs is an option to plan, dimension and validate service performance. For system modeling and analysis many methods exist. Queueing Systems and simulation are two well-known approaches in computer science. They provide average and thus long-term performance numbers quite easily using, probabilistic workload and service process descriptions. Deriving system behavior in worst-case situations for performance guarantees is elaborative and can be impossible for more complex systems. Receiving delay bounds usable in SLAs for SOAs by model analysis is still a research issue. A promising candidate to model SOA with SLAs is Network Calculus, an analytical method to derive performance bounds for network components. Given deterministic descriptions for arrival to and service in a network node hard bounds for network delay and the required buffer memory in routers are computed. A fine-granular separation between short- and long-term goals is possible. Network Calculus models also feature composition of elements and fast analytical analysis. When applied to SOAs with SLAs the problem arises that SLAs are not suitable as a system description and information source for Network Calculus models. Especially the internal service capacity is not exposed by SLAs, since providers consider them as a business secret. Without service process descriptions Network Calculus models cannot be analyzed. The SLA Calculus is presented as a solution to this problem. As a novel contribution for deterministic model analysis for SOAs, SLA Calculus is an extension to Network Calculus. Instead of service process descriptions, it uses information on latency to characterize a system. Delay of services is not a scalar analysis result anymore, it becomes a process over time that is bound with Network Calculus-style curves, the delay curves. Together with arrival curves the performance contracts in SLAs are formalized by so-called SLA Delay Properties (SDPs) as a description for the service performance in worst-case. Service composition can be modeled by serial and parallel combination of SDPs. The necessary theorems for the resulting worst-case bounds are given and proved. We will present a method to transfer these performance figures to the missing service process description again. Apart from basic theory we will also consider solutions for practical modeling situations. An algorithm to extract arrival and delay curves from measurements, enables the modeler to include already existing systems without given SLAs as model elements. Finally, we will sketch a selection method in form of an optimization problem for services to support the dynamic service selection in SOAs with a Service Broker. SLA Calculus model analysis will deliver deterministic upper and lower bounds for workload capacities and response times. For upper bounds the worst-case is assumed, thus bounds are pessimistic. The advantage of SLA Calculus is the ability to compute these bounds very fast and to give system modelers a quick overview on system characteristics considering extreme situations. In other modeling methods a lengthy transient analysis would be required. The strict perspective towards worst-case brought up another analysis target: Until now, relatively little attention was paid to contract conformance between subsequent services within service compositions. When services offer different workload capacities the arrival rate to the system needs to be adjusted to avoid bottlenecks. Additionally, for service compositions no response time contract can be guaranteed without internal buffering to enforce a common arrival rate. SLA Calculus unveils the necessary buffer delays and is able to bound them