Autonomous Web Services Research Articles

Autonomic Web Services Based on Different Adaptive Quasi-Asynchronous Checkpointing Techniques

Companies, organizations and individuals use Web services to build complex business functionalities. Web services must operate properly in the unreliable Internet infrastructure even in the presence of failures. To increase system dependability, organizations, including service providers, adapt their systems to the autonomic computing paradigm. Strategies can vary from having one to all (S-CHOP, self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization and self-protection) features. Regarding self-healing, an almost identical tool is communication-induced checkpointing (CiC), a checkpoint contains the state (heap, registers, stack, kernel state) for each process in the system. CiC is based on quasi-synchronous checkpointing where processes take checkpoints relying of control information piggybacked inside application messages; however, avoiding dangerous patterns such as Z-paths and Z-cycles; in such a regard the system takes forced checkpoints and avoids inconsistent states. CiC, unlike other tools, does not incur system performance, our proposal does not incur high overhead (as results show), and it has the advantage of being scalable. As we have shown in a previous work, CiC can be used to address dependability problems when dealing with Web services, as CiC mechanism work in a distributed and efficient manner. Therefore, in this work we propose an adaptable and dynamic generation of checkpoints to support fault tolerance. We present an alternative considering Quality of Service (QoS) criteria, and the different impact applications have on it. We propose taking checkpoints dynamically in case of failure or QoS degradation. Experimental results show that our approach has significantly reduced the generation of checkpoints of various well-known tools in the literature.

A study on Web service supporting mobility of users using ICT-based autonomous feedback knowledge information

The 4th Industrial Revolution is influencing all the industries with the convergence and development of information communication technology. Particularly, the demand for “building a connected, more intelligent society” is amplified against the IoT (Internet of Things) and Web service area. The key of the 4th Industrial Revolution is to aim at optimized service by building the mutual communication system between the device and device and between the device and the person through the information and communication technology (ICT)-based IoT. However, since the existing IoT and Web service utilize only the limited form and amount of feedback knowledge information, it only could satisfy the individual service and could not provide integrated customized service demanded by the user. Therefore, in this study, the system that can support the customized mobile Web service utilizing autonomous feedback knowledge information with the existing service support methods is suggested. The information is generated in order to apply the Web service by collecting the data from the ICT environment devices, IoT devices, sensor, and wearable devices. The user can use the service suitable for diverse physical changes and spatial changes made during the movement using the information generated. The ICT-based autonomous feedback knowledge information suggested in this article is generated by collecting the changed data of the user. The generated information is identified through the analysis and the assessment as a stage to apply to the service level, and the identified service level gives feedback to the client by matching with the support service. If the autonomous feedback knowledge information mobile support Web service system suggested in this article is applied, the flexible service search is possible and the service by situation can be provided to the user. In addition, a customized mobile support service can be provided without increasing the complexity of the system design compared with the traditional service search method.

Autonomic Web Services Enhanced by Asynchronous Checkpointing

The evolution of business software technologies is constant and is becoming increasingly complex which leads to a great probability of software/hardware failures. Business processes are built based on web services as they allow the creation of complex business functionalities. To attack the problem of failures presented by the use of web services, organizations are extrapolating the autonomic computing paradigm to their business processes as it enables them to detect, diagnose, and repair problems improving dependability. Sophisticated solutions that increase system dependability exist, however, those approaches have drawbacks; for example, they affect system performance, have high implementation costs, and or they may jeopardize the scalability of the system. To facilitate evolution to self-management, systems must implement the monitoring, analyzing, planning, and execution (MAPE) control loop. An open challenge for MAPE loop is to carry out in an efficient manner the diagnosis and decision-making processes, recollecting data from which the system can detect, diagnose, and repair potential problems. Also, dealt by systems dependability, specifically as fault tolerant mechanisms. One useful tool for this purpose is the communication induced checkpointing (CiC). We use CiC in attacking the dependability problem of using web services in a distributed and efficient manner. First, we present an approach for web services compositions that supports fault tolerance based on the CiC mechanism. Second, we present an algorithm aimed at web services compositions based on an autonomic computing and checkpointing mechanism. Experimental results support the feasibility of this concept proposal.

Achieving autonomic Web service compositions with models at runtime

Several exceptional situations may arise in the complex, heterogeneous, and changing contexts where Web service operations run. For instance, a Web service operation may have greatly increased its execution time or may have become unavailable. The contribution of this article is to provide a tool-supported framework to guide autonomic adjustments of context-aware service compositions using models at runtime. During execution, when problematic events arise in the context, models are used by an autonomic architecture to guide changes of the service composition. Under the closed-world assumption, the possible context events are fully known at design time. Nevertheless, it is difficult to foresee all the possible situations arising in uncertain contexts where service compositions run. Therefore, the proposed framework also covers the dynamic evolution of service compositions to deal with unexpected events in the open world. An evaluation demonstrates that our framework is efficient during dynamic adjustments.

Integration of Multiple Heterogeneous and Autonomous Web Services using Mediation Approach: Open Challenges

Regular users and enterprises are now increasingly dependent on web services. This growing dependence on one hand has simplified routine tasks, but on the other hand it has resulted in loss of direct control over the data. Nevertheless, both users and enterprises require simplified and generic solutions to access their data. The classical mediation approach from the data integration field provides a uniform query interface to diverse data sources hiding the underlying heterogeneity. But using this approach over multiple heterogeneous and autonomous web services has several open challenges. In this article, we will take a look at some of these challenges that need to be addressed for achieving a fully automated solution.

Campus Wireless Network Classification for Enterprise Adoption: Perspectives and Dimensions for Large Scale Computing

Owing to large scale computing using the cloud, services can be provisioned with reliable QoS performance. Existing Campus Wireless Network Nigerian tertiary instutions have various challenges in terms of performance, ease of integration, and cost effectiveness. In this paper, a distinct classification of functional network models, their attributes and characteristics was highlighted. Research gaps were identified and a proposed autonomic web services architecture that manages both the performance of service users and the interconnection of WiMax-Wifi infrastructure into a service overlay network was discussed. This represents an intelligent Campus Wireless Network Architecture for services convergence. Low scale and medium scale computing networks were also discussed while outlining their issues. For the large scale computing network model, the advantages of the system include: easing of management tasks through the autonomic systems, ability to self-configure, self-optimizeze and self-heal. Efficient resource management, virtualization and WiMax connectivity interfaces are the core features. This research is still on-going but have developed a workable system for both service deployment and migration without overhauling the generic platforms in existing systems. In the long run, Nigerian instutions will benefit from the improved newtork resilience with improvement in overall performance.

Coalitional Game for Community-Based Autonomous Web Services Cooperation

Web services (WSs) can cooperate with each other to provide more valuable WSs. Current approaches for WS cooperation have typically assumed that WSs are always willing to participate in some form of cooperation, and have undermined the fact that WSs are autonomous in this open environment. This assumption, however, becomes more problematic in community-based WS cooperation due to the dynamic nature of WS community. It is, therefore, important to devise a cooperation scheme respecting WS autonomy for community-based WS cooperation. In this paper, we model the community-based cooperation among autonomous WSs as a coalitional game in graph form. We show this game is non-cohesive and design a distributed coalition formation algorithm. We prove that the proposed algorithm can lead to an individually stable coalition partition, which indicates that every WS can maximize its benefit through cooperation without decreasing other WSs' benefit. We also conduct extensive simulations, and the results show that the proposed algorithm can greatly improve the average payoff per WS and average availability per coalition when compared with other cooperation schemes.

Ev-LCS: A System for the Evolution of Long-Term Composed Services

We propose a system, called EVolution of Long-term Composed Services (Ev-LCS), to address the change management issues in long-term composed services (LCSs). An LCS is a dynamic collaboration between autonomous web services that collectively provide a value-added service. It has a long-term commitment to its users. We first present a formal model, which provides the grounding semantics to support the automation of change management. We present a set of change operators that allow to specify a change in a precise and formal manner. We then propose a change enactment strategy that actually implements the changes. We develop a prototype system for the proposed Ev-LCS to demonstrate its effectiveness. We also conduct an experimental study to assess the performance of the change management approach.

A virtual stone soup: letter from the editors

This issue of the Journal of Internet Services and Applications features six papers covering the fields of Cloud/Grid/ Autonomic Computing, Recommendation Systems, Web Services, and Security. It is released when the greatest media event on Earth has just taken place: the Olympic Games of London 2012. The experience of The Games has been made more pervasive, in-depth, and personalized as never before with fans being able to follow their favorite sports on a multitude of hand-held devices, either live or asynchronously. An unprecedented computing infrastructure has been set up to produce and deliver, via Internet, content (schedules, news, records and result history, athlete profiles) and live feeds of most events, even those that are not to be broadcasted by any TV station. Cloud computing and cloud-enabled technologies were used for capturing, storing, editing, and enhancing content, such as projected flags on tracks and swimming pools, lines highlighting record marks in pools and sandboxes for track and field events. Encoding and streaming live and on-demand has required massive computation, storage, and network deployment. But, besides the sheer scale of equipment and deployment, there are also challenges and opportunities related to data handling and processing, as well as application integration. We thus see that this intensive use of computerrelated technologies and, in particular, of Internet-related

Linear parameter-varying model identification with structure selection for autonomic web service systems

Information technology (IT) systems must provide their users with prescribed quality of service (Qos) levels, usually defined in terms of application performance. Qos requirements are in general difficult to satisfy, since the system workload may vary by orders of magnitude within the same business day. To meet Qos requirements, resources have to dynamically be allocated among running applications, re-configuring them at run-time. To deal with resource allocation so as to manage system overload issues admission control and server virtualization are typically used: the former is a protection mechanism that rejects requests under peak workload, whereas the latter allows partitioning physical resources such as CPU and disks into multiple virtual ones. For designing effective controllers to ensure the desired Qos levels, a reliable model of the server dynamics is needed. The given systems, while retaining the time-varying nature that allows one to model workload variations. To address this issue, a constrained black-box subspace identification approach endowed with a novel structure selection is designed, and the performance of the identified models are assessed on experimental data.

AFAWS: An Agent based Framework for Autonomic Web Services

Autonomic computing is about systems that can manage themselves. Self-management includes self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, etc. self-* properties. Agent technology offers key advantages for the development of autonomic computing systems as it supports autonomy, adaptability, etc. Current Web service standards and technologies do not provide a suitable architecture in which all aspects of self-management can be designed. Moreover, traditional registries are passive entities and are not able to participate, in an autonomic manner, to the Web service adaptation process. In this paper, we present an Agent-based Framework for Autonomic Web Services AFAWS. This framework is based on two agent-based systems which collaborate to enrich Web services and registries with self-* capabilities.

AWS-Policy: An Extension for Autonomic Web Service Description

In the last years, the need for integrating QoS to service oriented architecture has become a significant factor for managing service-based systems. In addition, combining self-* and policy-based management has major advantages since it reduces complexity management and effectively drives self-adaptation of Web services. Current service oriented architecture does not support policy-based self-management. To allow this, the description of autonomic Web services (AWS) must not be limited to functional and non-functional data. Indeed, QoS data are not sufficient to effectively drive the self-adaptation process. In addition, providers must participate in the self-adaptation process as they are aware of the capabilities and requirements of their published services and the exceptions that may occur. In this paper, we propose a rich information model that allows describing autonomic Web services based not only on QoS data but also on additional information such as service specific adaptation actions. We extend WS-Policy to specify services related data. UDDI is also extended to support policy-based self-management.

Identification of LPV State Space Models for Autonomic Web Service Systems

The complexity of information technology (IT) systems is steadily increasing. System complexity has been recognized as the main obstacle to the further advancement of IT and has recently raised energy management issues. Control techniques have been proposed and successfully applied to design autonomic computing systems, i.e., systems able to manage themselves trading-off system performance with energy reduction goals. As users' behavior is highly time varying and workload conditions can change substantially within the same business day, the linear parametrically varying (LPV) framework proves particularly suitable for modeling such systems. In this paper, the identification of single-input-single-output and multiple-input-multiple-output state space LPV models for the performance control of autonomic web service systems is addressed. Specifically, subspace LPV identification methods are shown to yield accurate dynamic models for the considered application. Their effectiveness is assessed on experimental data measured on a custom implementation of a workload generator and micro-benchmarking Web service applications.

Approach for Autonomous Web Service Aggregation Driven by Requirement

A new concept,Autonomous Web Service (AWS),to search requirement autonomously,is introduced in this paper.An intention-behavior-achievement mechanism based on environment ontology is proposed to specify the service request and the capability of AWS.A model of AWS aggregation driven by requirement has been figured out.The matching algorithm between the requirements and the AWS capability and the AWSs aggregating algorithm have been designed based on the intention-behavior-achievement mechanism.Finally,a case study is given to show the feasibility of this method.

Runtime Monitoring CompositeWeb Services Through Stateful Aspect Extension

The execution of composite Web services with WS-BPEL relies on externally autonomous Web services. This implies the need to constantly monitor the running behavior of the involved parties. Moreover, monitoring the execution of composite Web services for particular patterns is critical to enhance the reliability of the processes. In this paper, we propose an aspect-oriented framework as a solution to provide monitoring and recovery support for composite Web services. In particular, this framework includes 1) a stateful aspect based template, where history-based pointcut specifies patterns of interest cannot be violated within a range, while advice specifies the associated recovery action; 2) a tool support for runtime monitoring and recovery based on aspect-oriented execution environment. Our experiments indicate that the proposed monitoring approach incurs minimal overhead and is efficient.

Predictive Autonomicity of Web Services in the MAWeS Framework

In Web Services designs classical optimization techniques are not applicable. A possible solution to guarantee critical requirements is the use of an autonomic architecture, able to auto-configure and to auto-tune. This study presents MAWeS (MetaPL/HeSSE Autonomic Web Services), a framework whose aim is to support the development of self-optimizing predictive autonomic systems for Web service architectures. It adopts a simulation-based methodology, which allows to predict system performance in different status and load conditions. The predicted results are used for a feedforward control of the system, which self-tunes before the new conditions and the subsequent performance losses are actually observed.

On dynamic generation of business protocol in autonomous Web services

On dynamic generation of business protocol in autonomous Web services

Autonomous trust for web services

PurposeThis paper aims to show that information and evidence found in the XML‐based environment of web services can allow web services providers to gain a sense of the trustworthiness of web services requestors over time.Design/methodology/approachA literature review on trust in web services environment is provided. Trust management models, and an existing trust specification for web services are discussed. Next, a conceptual framework for web services trust formation is presented.FindingsThe paper makes explicit types of information that can be used for trust formation. Web services providers are given the ability to trust requestors autonomously by making use of information that is published through web services standards, defined over and above a web services interface. The approach incorporates elements of social trust as it is concerned with more than cryptographic controls. It has mechanisms that allow a web services provider to manage trust autonomously, enabling different types of trust for different situations.Research limitations/implicationsA conceptual framework for trust formation has been defined that identifies a proposal for trust calculation. The paper does not address the implementation of the framework, and calculation of trust over information categories.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies a practical approach to autonomous web services trust by making use of web services standards such as WS‐Policy and WSMetadataExchange.Originality/valueThis paper identifies a taxonomy of trust information that can be used to make explicit the requirements for web services trust.

Towards autonomic web services

Autonomic Computing was introduced to reduce the complexity of managing computing systems; however, the heterogeneous nature existing in most computing systems introduces some difficulty to achieve this target. Moreover, the notion of service as a computing component that seamlessly collaborates with other services in a loosely-coupled manner to perform complicated tasks was introduced by Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA); and then, fertilized by Web Services that added open standards to different roles and operations involved in a community of services; however, in order to gain the expected benefits of Web Services, the latter should be able to survive in normal and abnormal conditions. Our research aims at finding a hyper solution to that two-dimensional problem by allowing both Autonomic Computing and Web Services paradigms to lend each other their distinct features. First, Web Services lend Autonomic Computing the concept of platform-independency; second, Autonomic Computing lends Web Services the attributes providing self-management. The focus of this paper will be on how the self-healing autonomic attribute can be implemented and applied using Web Services.