Design of composable services

Abstract

Service composition methods range from industry standard approaches based on Web Services and BPEL to Semantic Web approaches that rely on AI techniques to automate service discovery and composition. Service composition research mostly focuses on the dynamic (workflow) aspects of compositions. In this paper we consider the static component of service composition and discuss the importance of compatibility of service interfaces in ensuring the composability of services. Using a flight booking scenario example we show that reducing the granularity of services by decomposition into service operations with normalized interfaces produces compatible interfaces that facilitate service assembly. We then show how relational algebra can be used to represent service operations and provide a framework for service assembly. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.