A QoS oriented framework for adaptive management of web service based workflows

Abstract

Web Services are emerging technologies that enable application-to-application communication and reuse of autonomous services over Web. Traditional Workflow Management Systems fail to provide a comprehensive solution for a Web Service based Workflow. A framework that meets the quality of service (QoS) requirements for ad hoc Internet based Services is rarely provided. Considering the increasing demand for expanding services and application requirements coupled with use of Web Services, it is a challenging task to develop a QoS model as a framework for Web Service based Workflows. In this paper, we have proposed a QoS oriented Framework, called WebQ, that is capable of conducting the adaptive selection process and simultaneously provides binding and execution of Web Services for the underlying workflow. To achieve these objectives, as the first step, we have designed a QoS model for Web Service selection, binding, and execution. We, then, develop a set of algorithms to compute QoS parameters and implement them using a rule-based system. A series of experiments performed on workflows composed of real Web Services have confirmed that the proposed framework is very effective in improving the overall QoS of the system. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.