Early model-analysis of logistics systems

Abstract

In logistics, as in many other business sectors, service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are offering the possibility for applications to interact with each other across languages and platforms, and for external services to be procured automatically through dedicated middleware components. In this setting, one of the critical business aspects that need to be supported is the negotiation of non-functional quantitative aspects, such as costs, leading to service-level agreements (SLAs) between business parties. In this paper, we present a formal, probabilistic approach through which services can be analysed in relation to the probability that a quality of service property is satisfied. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.