Web services for distributed and interoperable hydro-information systems

Web services support the integration and interoperability of Web-based applications and enable machineto- machine interaction. The concepts of web services and open distributed architecture were applied to the development of T-DSS, the prototype customised for web based hydro-information systems. T-DSS provides mapping services, database related services and access to remote components, with special emphasis placed on the output flexibility (e.g. multilingualism), where SOAP web services are mainly used for communication. The remote components are represented above all by remote data and mapping services (e.g. meteorological predictions), modelling and analytical systems (currently HEC-HMS, MODFLOW and additional utilities), which support decision making in water management

Ontology-based semantic web services framework for knowledge management system

The latest Semantic Web developments and insights in knowledge management challenge the new era of semantic-based knowledge-management systems, where lies the new possibilities that Semantic Web affords for improved knowledge management. Connectivity and interoperability of knowledge management systems is the key to the vision of the future. We need a comprehensive framework that addresses main issues related to distributed Knowledge Management. Semantic Web Services (SWS) is the next major generation of the Web in which e-services and business communication become more knowledge-based. It proposes to extend the traditional Web Services technologies with its key enabling technologies of ontologies and semantics; to solve the problem of heterogeneity and interoperability of data across applications. This makes it possible to select, integrate and invocate services dynamically, which enable services to adapt themselves to changes without human intervention. The main purpose of this paper is to present the relevance of SWS technologies to KMS. Further, we discuss about the two major initiatives in SWS research. Later, we will propose ontology based semantic web services framework for KMS. Our focus is in the web service provider layer where we will introduce the three main components; knowledge manager, web service manager and ontology mapping manager

Distributed Web Service Coordination for Collaboration Applications and Biological Workflows

In this dissertation work, we have investigated the main research thrust of decentralized coordination of workflows over web services. To address distributed workflow coordination, first we have developed “Web Coordination Bonds” as a capable set of dependency modeling primitives that enable each web service to manage its own dependencies. Web bond primitives are as powerful as extended Petri nets and have sufficient modeling and expressive capabilities to model workflow dependencies. We have designed and prototyped our “Web Service Coordination Management Middleware” (WSCMM) system that enhances current web services infrastructure to accommodate web bond enabled web services. Finally, based on core concepts of web coordination bonds and WSCMM, we have developed the “BondFlow” system that allows easy configuration distributed coordination of workflows. The footprint of the BonFlow runtime is 24KB and the additional third party software packages, SOAP client and XML parser, account for 115KB

Integrated Network Service Manager: un sistema per la gestione integrata di servizi di rete

Cost reduction, simplified management, security and quality of service are fundamental targets when designing network services. Large organizations, which require great flexibility, often implement distributed services leading to the high cost of managing multiple servers. Transferring services from a distributed to a centralized model can reduce costs considerably. However, this choice could limit the freedom of peripheral administrators to manage their own services. We believe that the best solution is to strike a balance between the centralized and the distributed model: i.e., a hybrid management system, partly centralized, partly distributed. The idea is to centralize system configuration, maintenance and monitoring while distributing administrative tasks, typical of peripheral organization units, via web-based interfaces. We call this approach \u27Centralized Management with Delegated Administration\u27. In this report we describe INSM (Integrated Network Services Manager), a system for managing e-mail and DNS services, based on the CMDA model

Towards a service-oriented e-infrastructure for multidisciplinary environmental research

Research e-infrastructures are considered to have generic and thematic parts. The generic part provids high-speed networks, grid (large-scale distributed computing) and database systems (digital repositories and data transfer systems) applicable to all research commnities irrespective of discipline. Thematic parts are specific deployments of e-infrastructures to support diverse virtual research communities. The needs of a virtual community of multidisciplinary envronmental researchers are yet to be investigated. We envisage and argue for an e-infrastructure that will enable environmental researchers to develop environmental models and software entirely out of existing components through loose coupling of diverse digital resources based on the service-oriented achitecture. We discuss four specific aspects for consideration for a future e-infrastructure: 1) provision of digital resources (data, models & tools) as web services, 2) dealing with stateless and non-transactional nature of web services using workflow management systems, 3) enabling web servce discovery, composition and orchestration through semantic registries, and 4) creating synergy with existing grid infrastructures

Socio-Economic Mechanisms to Coordinate the Internet of Services: The Simulation Environment SimIS

Visions of 21st century information systems show highly specialized digital services and resources, which interact continuously and with a global reach. Especially with the emergence of technologies, such as the semantic web or software agents, intelligent services within these settings can be implemented, automatically communicating and negotiating over the Internet about digital resources without human intervention. Such environments will eventually realize the vision of an open and global Internet of Services (IoS). In this paper we present an agent-based simulation model and toolkit for the IoS: 'SimIS - Simulating an Internet of Services'. Employing SimIS, distributed management mechanisms and protocols can be investigated in a simulated IoS environment before their actual deployment.Multi-Agent Simulation, Internet, Simulation Tools

A peer-to-peer infrastructure for resilient web services

This work is funded by GR/M78403 “Supporting Internet Computation in Arbitrary Geographical Locations” and GR/R51872 “Reflective Application Framework for Distributed Architectures”, and by Nuffield Grant URB/01597/G “Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure for Autonomic Storage Architectures”This paper describes an infrastructure for the deployment and use of Web Services that are resilient to the failure of the nodes that host those services. The infrastructure presents a single interface that provides mechanisms for users to publish services and to find hosted services. The infrastructure supports the autonomic deployment of services and the brokerage of hosts on which services may be deployed. Once deployed, services are autonomically managed in a number of aspects including load balancing, availability, failure detection and recovery, and lifetime management. Services are published and deployed with associated metadata describing the service type. This same metadata may be used subsequently by interested parties to discover services. The infrastructure uses peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay technologies to abstract over the underlying network to deploy and locate instances of those services. It takes advantage of the P2P network to replicate directory services used to locate service instances (for using a service), Service Hosts (for deployment of services) and Autonomic Managers which manage the deployed services. The P2P overlay network is itself constructed using novel Web Services-based middleware and a variation of the Chord P2P protocol, which is self-managing.Postprin

E-Document Management Based on Web services and XML

Document management plays an important role in R&D project management for government funding agencies, universities, and research institutions. The advent of Web services and XML presents new opportunities for e-document management. This paper describes a novel solution for processing large quantities of electronic documents in multiple formats within a short timeframe. The solution is based on Web services for integrating two-tiered distributed processing. It also involves a document extraction process for handling multiple document formats, with XML as the intermediate for information exchange. The application of the solution at the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) proved successful, and the general approach may be applied to a broad range of e-document management settings

Usage of web mapping systems and services for information support of regional management

The work considers information and computing technologies supporting regional decisions making and based on geoinformation websystems and mapping web-services. The use of such systems for the information support of regional management is now becoming common. Long-term strategic forecasting and planning of territories development, solution of various institutional and sectoral problems today are often based on the use of integrated information and computing environment, complex information systems of regional management, which are based on geospatial (mapping) data. This paper discusses technologies and webservices used in the creation and implementation of regional geoinformation web-systems. Such systems provide access to huge arrays of geospatial information and services distributed in the Internet, remote data processing with high performance multi-user computers. Problems of choosing basic software such as geoinformation platform, advantages and disadvantages of existing solutions are discussed. The software structure and basic web-GIS components are analyzed. Examples of completed projects are given