Towards a conceptual framework for semantic interoperability in service oriented architectures

The application of Semantic Web technologies to service-oriented architectures (SOA) has promised to mitigate the problem of achieving semantic interoperability as the formal definition of semantics paves the way for higher automation in the mediation process between heterogeneous services. Recently, many ontology-based approaches for semantic interoperability have been developed. However, it remains difficult to compare the various approaches because only domain-specific conceptual frameworks for semantic interoperability exist. Moreover, in SOA practice ontology-based approaches are not widely adopted but still XML-based solutions are dominant. This paper targets to fill this gap and presents ongoing work towards a general conceptual framework for semantic interoperability in SOA as a foundation for comparative reflection. Based on the framework selected approaches both academic and industry-driven are compared. Furthermore, an inherent trade-off between efficiency an d effectiveness in achieving semantic interoperability is identified and a potential alleviation based on semantic mediation on domain level is outlined

Supporting Automatic Interoperability in Model-Driven Development Processes

By analyzing the last years of software development evolution, it is possible to observe that the involved technologies are increasingly focused on the definition of models for the specification of the intended software products. This model-centric development schema is the main ingredient for the Model-Driven Development (MDD) paradigm. In general terms, the MDD approaches propose the automatic generation of software products by means of the transformation of the defined models into the final program code. This transformation process is also known as model compilation process. Thus, MDD is oriented to reduce (or even eliminate) the hand-made programming, which is an error-prone and time-consuming task. Hence, models become the main actors of the MDD processes: the models are the new programming code. In this context, the interoperability can be considered a natural trend for the future of model-driven technologies, where different modeling approaches, tools, and standards can be integrated and coordinated to reduce the implementation and learning time of MDD solutions as well as to improve the quality of the final software products. However, there is a lack of approaches that provide a suitable solution to support the interoperability in MDD processes. Moreover, the proposals that define an interoperability framework for MDD processes are still in a theoretical space and are not aligned with current standards, interoperability approaches, and technologies. Thus, the main objective of this doctoral thesis is to develop an approach to achieve the interoperability in MDD processes. This interoperability approach is based on current metamodeling standards, modeling language customization mechanisms, and model-to-model transformation technologies. To achieve this objective, novel approaches have been defined to improve the integration of modeling languages, to obtain a suitable interchange of modeling information, and to perform automatic interoperability verification.Giachetti Herrera, GA. (2011). Supporting Automatic Interoperability in Model-Driven Development Processes [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/11108Palanci