Execution/Simulation of Context/Constraint-aware Composite Services using GIPSY

For fulfilling a complex requirement comprising of several sub-tasks, a composition of simple web services, each of which is dedicated to performing a specific sub-task involved, proves to be a more competent solution in comparison to an equivalent atomic web service. Owing to advantages such as re-usability of components, broader options for composition requesters and liberty to specialize for component providers, for over two decades now, composite services have been extensively researched to the point of being perfected in many aspects. Yet, most of the studies undertaken in this field fail to acknowledge that every web service has a limited context in which it can successfully perform its tasks, the boundaries of which are defined by the internal constraints placed on the service by its providers. When used as part of a composition, the restricted context-spaces of all such component services together define the contextual boundaries of the composite service as a unit, which makes internal constraints an influential factor for composite service functionality. However, due to the limited exposure received by them, no systems have yet been proposed to cater to the specific verification of internal constraints imposed on components of a composite service. In an attempt to address this gap in service composition research, in this thesis, we propose a multi-faceted solution capable of not only automatically constructing context-aware composite web services with their internal constraints positioned for optimum resource-utilization but also of validating the generated compositions using the General Intensional Programming SYstem (GIPSY) as a time- and cost-efficient simulation/execution environment

Scalable Automatic Service Composition using Genetic Algorithms

A composition of simple web services, each dedicated to performing a specific sub- task involved, proves to be a more competitive solution than an equivalent atomic web service for a complex requirement comprised of several sub-tasks. Composite services have been extensively researched and perfected in many aspects for over two decades, owing to benefits such as component re-usability, broader options for composition requesters, and the liberty to specialize for component providers. However, most studies in this field must acknowledge that each web service has a limited context in which it can successfully perform its tasks, the boundaries defined by the internal constraints imposed on the service by its providers. The restricted context-spaces of all such component services define the contextual boundaries of the composite service as a whole when used in a composition, making internal constraints an essential factor in composite service functionality. Due to their limited exposure, no systems have yet been proposed on the large-scale solution repository to cater to the specific verification of internal constraints imposed on components of a composite service. In this thesis, we propose a scalable automatic service composition capable of not only automatically constructing context-aware composite web services with internal constraints positioned for optimal resource utilization but also validating the generated compositions on a large-scale solution repository using the General Intensional Programming System (GIPSY) as a time- and cost-efficient simulation/execution environment