Managing Dependencies for a Hierarchical Service-based System

Abstract

This study proposes a hierarchical model of a Service-Based System (SBS) to represent horizontal and vertical dependencies within a SBS. In order to detect root-causes and conduct impact-analysis of anomalies occurring in a SBS, we represent the SBS as a multi-layer system consisting of Business Process Management (BPM) layer, Service Composition and Coordination (SCC) layer and Service Infrastructure (SI) layer using Hypergraphs. The intra-layer and inter-layer relationships are depicted by hyperedges that effectively depicts n-ary relationships which are not possible with simple graphs. Using hypergraphs and hyperedges we have effectively represented intra-layer horizontal time dependencies and inter-layer vertical time and resource dependencies. Horizontal time dependencies help us to analyse the impact of a time delay on related entities of the same layer. Vertical resource dependencies help in root-cause analysis of the time delay. Vertical time dependencies aid in finding the impact of service delay on activities of the business layer. Our approach based on hypergraph helps to model relationships of a SBS from multiple perspectives using hyperedges. The proposed approach meticulously represents various vertical and horizontal dependencies between elements of a SBS and can be effectively utilised to identify root-cause of an anomaly and its impact on related entities of a hierarchical SBS.