A Service-Oriented Approach to Freight Routing in Intermodal Transport Systems

Determining optimal routes for given freight is a core decision inlogistics. In intermodal logistics, freight routing has to considerthe interfaces between different modes of transportation, such ashand-over offsets, load changes, and organizational procedures.We study this problem from the perspective of Service-OrientedComputing (SOC). We (1) propose representing intermodaltransport systems as a set of service offerings and customerdemand as service requests, (2) define freight routing as a servicecomposition problem, and (3) develop a composition algorithmfor transportation services

The Role of Application Domain Knowledge in Using OWL DL Diagrams: A Study of Inference and Problem-Solving Tasks

Diagrammatic conceptual schemas are an important part of information systems analysis and design. For effectively communicating domain semantics, modeling grammars have been proposed to create highly expressive conceptual schemas. One such grammar is the Web Ontology Language (OWL), which relies upon description logics (DL) as a knowledge representation mechanism. While an OWL DL diagram can be useful for representing domain semantics in great detail, the formal semantics of OWL DL places a burden on diagram users. This research investigates how user’s prior knowledge of the application domain impacts solving inference tasks as well as schema-based problem-solving tasks using OWL DL diagrams. Our empirical validation shows that application domain knowledge has no effect on inference performance but enhances schema-based problem-solving performance. We contribute to the conceptual modeling literature by studying task performance for a highly expressive modeling grammar and introducing inference tasks as a new task type

Ontology-Based QoS Aggregation for Composite Web Services

Determining the QoS (quality of service) of composite Web services is of high importance for both service providers and service consumers. Heterogeneity of service descriptions, however, often hinders the aggregation of QoS parameters. We propose ontology-based QoS aggregation that integrates the semantics of QoS parameters and their aggregation into the overall aggregation process. The contribution is a QoS aggregation ontology and a QoS aggregation method that uses this ontology. We demonstrate the usefulness of our proposal for designers of composite services and assess its computational efficiency

Using Domain Ontology for Service Replacement Tasks: An Empirical Evaluation

Organizations increasingly use information technology (IT) to integrate their business processes into the processes of their suppliers, customers, and other third parties. An important IT approach is the realization of composite services that organize elementary software services under a shared workflow. Any failure of an elementary service can severely impact the process. The failed service must be examined and, ultimately, be replaced. In solving that task, the process designer must consider the quality-of-service (QoS) of the process. However, the heterogeneity of service descriptions puts the burden on the designer. This research empirically evaluates how designers can use a domain ontology, namely the QoS aggregation ontology, for the replacement task. We report on a laboratory experiment to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of using the ontology vis-à-vis an aggregation table. The results provide evidence for the usefulness of the domain ontology that specifies problem-solving knowledge required for a time-critical task

Standardization of Product Ontologies in B2B Relationships -- On The Role of . . .

Product ontologies in B2B relationships establish a shared and common understanding of a product domain by building hierarchies of product classes enriched by attributes. This is especially true for standardized product ontologies which enable efficient catalog navigation and product search as well as product comparison across suppliers. While much research work has been carried out on the classification process, business practice has to cope with heterogeneities regarding data exchange, formal specifications and semantic richness that hinder the proliferation of product ontologies. One solution may be the standard ISO 13584, routed in product data management. This paper aims at analyzing the potential of ISO 13584 as a reference model for product ontologies. The paper will assess its capabilities by deriving requirements. This will be complemented by an empirical analysis of a selected product ontology in order to determine both the current relevance of ISO 13584 and needs for enhancements or modifications

Automating Product Classification: The Impact Of Standardization

Approaches to automating product classification adopt mainly algorithms and tools for classification in general, such as Vector Space Model, Bayesian Classification and K-Nearest Neighbor Classification, or take classification systems as (database) schemas that have to be integrated. Much work has been carried out on applying, evaluating and improving these tools for this specific domain, product data in B2B e-commerce. The formal specification of a product classification system (PCS) is seen as input data; hence this data has to be imported and often converted into an internal representation. This paper takes a closer look at this input data and examines its structure, semantic richness and degree of standardization. The reason is that standards for product classification systems and standardized specifications address the data exchange issues of these systems -- and more important, are able to increase the success of automated product classification. To do so the paper will derive and analyze major standardization trends, show their interdependencies and evaluate their impact on automated classification

Maintaining Property Libraries in . . .

Semantic interoperability in B2B e-commerce can be achieved by committing to a product ontology that establishes a shared and common understanding of a product domain. This issue is mainly subject of standard product classification schemes. Recently, considerable research and industry work has been carried out on enhancing the semantic richness of these schemes. Providing specific property lists for each product class can be seen as a step towards true product ontologies. Horizontal classification schemes, however, often consist of more than 10,000 classes, several thousand properties, and an even greater number of classproperty relations. Given the new requirement towards property-centric classification, maintaining these business vocabularies is mainly determined by strategies for managing the property definitions and their relationships to classes. This paper proposes measures for coping with the problem of extensive and steadily growing property libraries. It can be shown that implementing these measures greatly influences both standards makers and standards adopters

The Role of Application Domain Knowledge in Understanding Supply Chain Process Models

Professionals increasingly use diagrammatic models to analyze the processes within supply chains. These diagrams are created using domain-specific modeling grammars, which are different from business process models developed from domain-independent model

A MODELING APPROACH FOR E-BUSINESS STANDARDS BASED ON XML SCHEMA ANNOTATIONS

Since the advent of XML as a meta language for data exchange on the Internet, numerous e-business standards for various applications and business domains have been developed. The problem is that such e-business standards can get very complex with regard to the size of respective formal specifications as well as supplementing documentations. The latter provide important information required for understanding and eventually correctly adopting such as standard. We address this problem from a document engineering perspective which provides means for specifying, designing, and implementing electronic documents. In particular, we employ the technique of XML schema annotations which allow for closely integrating both the formal specification and its supplementing documentation. We show the usefulness of our proposal by reporting on experiences made in an e-business standardization project