JWSR, Volume 2, Number 1, January-March 2005
Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association
Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically
ISSN: 1545-7362
EISSN: 1546-5004


EDITORIAL PREFACE:

"Services Computing a New Discipline"

Liang-Jie Zhang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA

Web services are an enabling technology for building re-usable and configurable solutions. Specifically, Web services are network-based application components with services-oriented architectures using standard interface description languages and uniform communication protocols. Typical industry solution areas of Web services are businessto-business integration, business process integration and management, content management, e-sourcing, composite Web services creation, design collaboration for computer engineering, multimedia communication, digital TV, and interactive Web solutions. Currently, grid computing has also started to leverage Web services to define standard interfaces for business services and generic reusable grid resources.

RESEARCH PAPERS

PAPER ONE:

"Dynamic Workflow Composition: Using Markov Decision Processes"

Doshi, P.
Goodwin, R.
Akkiraju, R.
Verma, K.

The advent of Web services has made automated workflow composition relevant to Web-based applications. One technique that has received some attention for automatically composing workflows is AI-based classical planning. However, workflows generated by classical planning algorithms suffer from the paradoxical assumption of deterministic behavior of Web services, then requiring the additional overhead of execution monitoring to recover from unexpected behavior of services due to service failures, and the dynamic nature of real-world environments. To address these concerns, we propose using Markov decision processes (MDPs) to model workflow composition. To account for the uncertainty over the true environmental model, and for dynamic environments, we interleave MDP-based workflow generation and Bayesian model learning. Consequently, our method models both the inherent stochastic nature of Web services and the dynamic nature of the environment. Our algorithm produces workflows that are robust to non-deterministic behaviors of Web services and that adapt to a changing environment. We use a supply chain scenario to demonstrate our method and provide empirical results.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.igi-pub.com/articles/details.asp?ID=4769

PAPER TWO:

"WSDL-Driven SOAP Compression"

Werner, C.
Buschmann, C.
Fischer, S.

A major drawback of using SOAP for application integration is its enormous demand for network bandwidth. Compared to classical approaches like JavaRMI and Corba, SOAP messages typically cause more than three times more network traffic. In this paper we will explore compression strategies and give a detailed survey and evaluation of state-of-the-art binary encoding techniques for SOAP. We also introduce a new experimental concept for SOAP compression based on differential encoding, which makes use of the commonly available WSDL description of a SOAP Web service. We do not only conduct a detailed evaluation of compression effectiveness but also provide the results of execution time measurements.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.igi-pub.com/articles/details.asp?ID=4770

PAPER THREE:

"RAW Architecture: Reflective and Adaptable Web Service Model"

Parra-Fuente, J.
Sanchez-Alonzo, S.
Sanjuan-Martinez, O.
Joyanes-Agular, L.

Web services are static components, which implies that before a change in their structure or behavior can be made, the source code or a decoder of compiled code is needed. The full process consists of three steps: editing and modifying the source code, compiling it again, and redeploying it in the server. Reflection, a powerful tool for the adaptation of applications at runtime, may help in creating more flexible and dynamic Web services. In this paper, we introduce RAWS (Reflective and Adaptable Web Service) Architecture, a Web service design model based on a reflective architecture multilevel. RAWS allows both the dynamic modification of the definition and implementation structure of the Web service, and the dynamic modification of the Web service behavior in order to change the existing code or to add new functionalities. All these dynamic modifications are performed directly on the code during execution, with no need to have the Web service source code. We also introduce an automatic generator of the reflective infrastructure that is needed for the implementation of the RAWS architecture. This infrastructure will make possible that any Web service can automatically behave like a Reflective and Adaptable Web Service.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.igi-pub.com/articles/details.asp?ID=4771

PAPER FOUR:

"A Service-Oriented Multimedia Componentization Model"

Zhang, J.
Zhang, L.J.
Quek, F.
Chung, J. Y.

As Web services become more and more popular, how to manage multimedia Web services that can be composed as value-added service solutions remains challenging. This paper presents a service-oriented multimedia componentization model to support Quality of Service (QoS)-centered, device-independent multimedia Web services, which seamlessly incorporates cutting-edge technologies relating to Web services. A multimedia Web service is divided into control flow and data flow. Each can be delivered via different infrastructures and channels. Enhancements are proposed to facilitate Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP) protocols to improve their flexibility to serve multimedia Web services. We present a set of experiments that show the viability of our service-oriented componentization model that can support efficient delivery and management of multimedia Web services.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.igi-pub.com/articles/details.asp?ID=4772

PAPER FIVE:

"Security System for Distributed Business Applications"

Schmidt, T.
Wippel, K.G.
Furst, K.

Internet-focused application components of cooperating enterprises need comprehensive security technologies that go far beyond simple Internet authentication and authorization mechanisms. Basically, authentication is the process of determining the identity of a user or system, whereas authorization is the process of specifying who is allowed to access which resources. XML-based Web services is an upcoming and very promising technology. It enables the communication among Internet application components regardless of their implementation language. A major drawback of existing Web service approaches is the missing security conventions. Therefore, we concentrated all our effort on developing a holistic extended enterprise authentication and authorization system to facilitate agile and secure enterprise-spanning business processes with Web service-enabled application components.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.igi-pub.com/articles/details.asp?ID=4773

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For full copies of the above articles, check for this issue of the International Journal of Web Services Research (JWSR) in your Institution's library.
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