Service-oriented computing: concepts, characteristics and directions

Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is the computing paradigm that utilizes services as fundamental elements for developing applications/solutions. To build the service model, SOC relies on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a way of reorganizing software applications and infrastructure into a set of interacting services. However, the basic SOA does not address overarching concerns such as management, service orchestration, service transaction management and coordination, security, and other concerns that apply to all components in a services architecture. In this paper we introduce an Extended Service Oriented Architecture that provides separate tiers for composing and coordinating services and for managing services in an open marketplace by employing grid services.

A language-agnostic framework for the analysis of the syntactic structure of process fragments

Process fragments are a cornerstone of process modeling in both Service Oriented Architecture and Business Process Management. The state of the art lacks shared, language agnostic definitions of the basic concepts and properties of process fragments. This absence of a common foundation for the research on process fragments hinders the comparison and reuse of the results in the state of the art, and renders impossible the reaching of agreed, intensional definitions of the different typologies of process fragments. The present work aims at filling this gap by providing a framework of language agnostic definitions of properties of the syntactic structure of process fragments based on the mereotopology of discrete space. Alongside familiar mereologic concepts like inclusion, overlap and disjointness, we cover fundamental concepts for process fragments like (dis)connection, selfconnectedness, borders, interiors and exteriors. Besides providing a foundation for further research on process fragments, we discuss the immediate application of the concepts defined in this work in the scope of the change management of process models

Development of service-oriented architectures using model-driven development : a mapping study

Context: Model-Driven Development (MDD) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are two challenging research areas in software engineering. MDD is about improving software development whilst SOA is a service-based conceptual development style, therefore investigating the available proposals in the literature to use MDD when developing SOA may be insightful. However, no studies have been found with this purpose. Objective: This work aims at assessing the state of the art in MDD for SOA systems. It mainly focuses on: what are the characteristics of MDD approaches that support SOA; what types of SOA are supported; how do they handle non-functional requirements. Method: We conducted a mapping study following a rigorous protocol. We identified the representative set of venues that should be included in the study. We applied a search string over the set of selected venues. As result, 129 papers were selected and analysed (both frequency analysis and correlation analysis) with respect to the defined classification criteria derived from the research questions. Threats to validity were identified and mitigated whenever possible. Results: The analysis allows us to answer the research questions. We highlight: (1) predominance of papers from Europe and written by researchers only; (2) predominance of top-down transformation in software development activities; (3) inexistence of consolidated methods; (4) significant percentage of works without tool support; (5) SOA systems and service compositions more targeted than single services and SOA enterprise systems; (6) limited use of metamodels; (7) very limited use of NFRs; and (8) limited application in real cases. Conclusion: This mapping study does not just provide the state of the art in the topic, but also identifies several issues that deserve investigation in the future, for instance the need of methods for activities other than software development (e.g., migration) or the need of conducting more real case studies.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Leveraging Web-Services and Peer-to-Peer Networks

Two of the most recent and popular topics in computing are service-oriented computing (exemplified by web-services) and peer-to-peer computing. Peer-oriented computing is an attempt to weave inter-connected machines into the fabric of the Internet. Web-services, on the other hand, are a more formal technological challenge, an attempt to apply a service-oriented computing model to web resources to provide a loosely coupled paradigm for distributed processing. Despite the fact that these two concepts have some significant amount of overlap, e.g., each seeks to become a common means for publishing and discovery across networks, their current manifestations still remain quite diverse. In this paper we highlight key intersect points that enable possibilities for using these two technologies together. Moreover, we present an architectural approach and formal framework towards unifying them to provide essential functions required for automating e-business applications such as e-marketplaces and service exchanges

Design Methodology for Web Services and Business Processes

E-business is shifting attention from component based to web service based applications. Most enterprises spend most of their time assembling applications by consuming web services rather than worrying about the design principles underlying them, their granularity or the development of components that implement them. In this paper we present a design methodology for web services and business processes. We discuss how business process should be described so that services can be properly identified and provide strategies and principles regarding functional and non-functional aspects of web service design

Interoperation Support for Electronic Business

this article we briefly describe an architectural framework that permits the flexibility, interoperability, and openness needed for e-commerce applications rather than a collection of independent solutions that may not work in concert. Following this, we describe the critical elements of interoperability in the context of e-commerce and integrated value chains and discuss current developments trends and expectation

Knowledge Navigation in Networked Digital Libraries

Formulating precise and effective queries in document retrieval systems requires the users to predict which terms appear in documents relevant to their information needs. It is important that users do not retrieve a plethora of irrelevant documents due to underspecified queries or queries containing ambiguous search terms. Due to these reasons, networked digital libraries with rapid growth in their volume of documents, document diversity, and terminological variations are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. In this paper we consider the concept of knowledge navigation for federated digital libraries and explain how it can provide the kind of intermediary expert prompting required to enable purposeful searching and effective discovery of documents

Smart connected digital factories: Unleashing the power of industry 4.0

Recent initiatives such as the Industrial IoT, or Industry 4.0, as it has been dubbed, are fundamentally reshaping the industrial landscape by promoting connected manufacturing solutions that realize a “digital thread” which connects all aspects of manufacturing including all data and operations involved in the production of goods and services. This paper focuses on Industry 4.0 technologies and how they support the emergence of highly-connected, knowledge-enabled factories, referred to as Smart Manufacturing Networks. Smart Manufacturing Networks comprise an ecosystem of connected factory sites, plants, and self-regulating machines able to customize output, and allocate resources over manufacturing clouds optimally to offer a seamless transition between the physical and digital worlds of product design and production