ebXML Registry Research Articles

A distributed architecture for efficient Web service discovery

Although the definition of service-oriented architecture (SOA) included the presence of a service registry from the beginning, the first implementations (e.g., UDDI) did not really succeed mainly because of security and governance issues. This article tackles the problem by introducing DREAM (Distributed Registry by ExAMple): a publish/subscribe-based solution to integrate existing, different registries, along with a match-making approach to ease the publication and retrieval of services. DREAM fosters the interoperability among registry technologies and supports UDDI, ebXML Registry, and other registries. The publish/subscribe paradigm allows service providers to decide the services they want to publish, and requestors to be informed of the services that satisfy their interests. As for the match-making, DREAM supports different ways to evaluate the matching between published and required services. Besides presenting the architecture of DREAM and the different match-making opportunities, the article also describes the experiments conducted to evaluate proposed solutions.

Restful Implementation of Catalogue Service for Geospatial Data Provenance

Abstract. Provenance, also known as lineage, is important in understanding the derivation history of data products. Geospatial data provenance helps data consumers to evaluate the quality and reliability of geospatial data. In a service-oriented environment, where data are often consumed or produced by distributed services, provenance could be managed by following the same service-oriented paradigm. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) is used for the registration and query of geospatial data provenance by extending ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM). Recent advance of the REpresentational State Transfer (REST) paradigm has shown great promise for the easy integration of distributed resources. RESTful Web Service aims to provide a standard way for Web clients to communicate with servers based on REST principles. The existing approach for provenance catalogue service could be improved by adopting the RESTful design. This paper presents the design and implementation of a catalogue service for geospatial data provenance following RESTful architecture style. A middleware named REST Converter is added on the top of the legacy catalogue service to support a RESTful style interface. The REST Converter is composed of a resource request dispatcher and six resource handlers. A prototype service is developed to demonstrate the applicability of the approach.

A direct registry service method for sensors and algorithms based on the process model

To characterize and monitor environmental quality in real time, significant efforts must be made to make sensors accessible on the Web. Although a number of services have shown great potential to improve the accuracy and reliability of sensor registry, comprehensive methods that register sensors and algorithms in a catalogue service based on a process model are lacking. This paper addresses the registry of processes, including physical and non-physical processes, by using the OGC catalogue service. To provide more information on sensors and algorithms, the process catalogue information model extends the ebXML Registry information Model. The mapping between the metadata encoded in SensorML and the extended model includes more information for all types of processes. Moreover, the mapping includes the relationship among processes and their categories based on the properties of sensors and algorithms. The effectiveness of the improved model is registered and implemented in GEOSENSOR CSW, following the OGC “transaction” interface. Flooding experimental results demonstrate that the service can effectively and directly register sensors and algorithms so that processes can be flexibly executed according to users' demands.

Metadata Harvesting and Registration in a Geospatial Sensor Web Registry

AbstractA Sensor Web registry acts as a broker in a service‐oriented environment to publish and discover Sensor Web resources (e.g. sensors, sensor services, observations, and alerts). The Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) defines a standard interface and protocol for publishing and discovering geospatial resources. This article adopts the CSW for the development of a Sensor Web registry. Metadata for Sensor Web resources are registered into the catalogue information model – the ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM). In the Sensor Web environment, sensor observations can be available in real‐time or near‐real‐time, and thus metadata registered in CSW need to be updated frequently. This article proposes an incremental harvesting approach, which can harvest the updated metadata efficiently. A prototypical implementation is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the approach.

Sharing geospatial provenance in a service-oriented environment

One of the earliest investigations of provenance was inspired by applications in GIS in the early 1990’s. Provenance records the processing history of a data product. It provides an information context to help users determine the reliability of data products. Conventional provenance applications in GIS focus on provenance capture, representation, and usage in a stand-alone environment such as a desktop-based GIS software system. They cannot support wide sharing and open access of provenance in a distributed environment. The growth of service-oriented sharing and processing of geospatial data brings some new challenges in provenance-aware applications. One is how to share geospatial provenance in an interoperable way. This paper describes the development of provenance service for geospatial data products using the ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) of a geospatial catalog service, which follows the interface specifications of the OGC Catalogue Services for the Web (CSW). This approach fits well the current service stack of the GIS domain and facilitates the management of geospatial data provenance in an open and distributed environment.

A semantic registry using a Feature Type Catalogue instead of ontologies to support spatial data infrastructures

The use of a semantically rich registry containing a Feature Type Catalogue (FTC) to represent the semantics of geographic feature types including operations, attributes and relationships between feature types is required to realise the benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). Specifically, such information provides a more complete representation of the semantics of the concepts used in the SDI, and enables advanced navigation, discovery and utilisation of discovered resources. The presented approach creates an FTC implementation in which attributes, associations and operations for a given feature type are encapsulated within the FTC, and these conceptual representations are separated from the implementation aspects of the web services that may realise the operations in the FTC. This differs from previous approaches that combine the implementation and conceptual aspects of behaviour in a web service ontology, but separate the behavioural aspects from the static aspects of the semantics of the concept or feature type. These principles are demonstrated by the implementation of such a registry using open standards. The ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) was used to incorporate the FTC described in ISO 19110 by extending the Open Geospatial Consortium ebRIM Profile for the Web Catalogue Service (CSW) and adding a number of stored queries to allow the FTC component of the standards‐compliant registry to be interrogated. The registry was populated with feature types from the marine domain, incorporating objects that conform to both the object and field views of the world. The implemented registry demonstrates the benefits of inheritance of feature type operations, attributes and associations, the ability to navigate around the FTC and the advantages of separating the conceptual from the implementation aspects of the FTC. Further work is required to formalise the model and include axioms to allow enhanced semantic expressiveness and the development of reasoning capabilities.

A Study on The Global Standards Of The E-Trade Process on The Basis ebXML & Web Services

In this paper, we recommend and promote global standards of the e-Trade process on the basis ebXML&web services. For the ebXML Framework-based e-Trade to be facilitated, it is urgent for each country to implement and use national ebXML registry and standardize electronic documents, electronic catalog and electronic payment. In UNCEFACT, ebXML-based UN Central Registies & Repository is in the process of development and japan Canada are also implementing national ebXML-based central registries. Just as the Internet is globally interconnected for intercommunication, the global e-Trade is enabled by the federation of ebXML-based registries at the country-level as well as at the sectoral level.

Integrating semantic web technologies and geospatial catalog services for geospatial information discovery and processing in cyberinfrastructure

A geospatial catalogue service provides a network-based meta-information repository and interface for advertising and discovering shared geospatial data and services. Descriptive information (i.e., metadata) for geospatial data and services is structured and organized in catalogue services. The approaches currently available for searching and using that information are often inadequate. Semantic Web technologies show promise for better discovery methods by exploiting the underlying semantics. Such development needs special attention from the Cyberinfrastructure perspective, so that the traditional focus on discovery of and access to geospatial data can be expanded to support the increased demand for processing of geospatial information and discovery of knowledge. Semantic descriptions for geospatial data, services, and geoprocessing service chains are structured, organized, and registered through extending elements in the ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) of a geospatial catalogue service, which follows the interface specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Services for the Web (CSW). The process models for geoprocessing service chains, as a type of geospatial knowledge, are captured, registered, and discoverable. Semantics-enhanced discovery for geospatial data, services/service chains, and process models is described. Semantic search middleware that can support virtual data product materialization is developed for the geospatial catalogue service. The creation of such a semantics-enhanced geospatial catalogue service is important in meeting the demands for geospatial information discovery and analysis in Cyberinfrastructure.

Role-based access control for a Grid system using OGSA-DAI and Shibboleth

In this paper, we propose a new role-based access control (RBAC) system for Grid data resources in the Open Grid Services Architecture Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI). OGSA-DAI is a widely used framework for integrating data resources in Grids. However, OGSA-DAI's identity-based access control causes substantial administration overhead for the resource providers in virtual organizations (VOs) because of the direct mapping between individual Grid users and the privileges on the resources. To solve this problem, we used the Shibboleth, an attribute authorization service, to support RBAC within the OGSA-DAI. In addition, access control policies need to be specified and managed across multiple VOs. For the specification of access control policies, we used the Core and Hierarchical RBAC profile of the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML); and for distributed administration of those policies and the user-role assignments, we used the Object, Metadata and Artifacts Registry (OMAR). OMAR is based on the e-business eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) registry specifications developed to achieve interoperable registries and repositories. Our RBAC system provides scalable and fine-grain access control and allows privacy protection. It also supports dynamic delegation of rights and user-role assignments, and reduces the administration overheads for the resource providers because they need to maintain only the mapping information from VO roles to local database roles. Moreover, unnecessary mapping and connections can be avoided by denying invalid requests at the VO level. Performance analysis shows that our RBAC system adds only a small overhead to the existing security infrastructure of OGSA-DAI.

Role-Based Access Control in a Data Grid Using the Storage Resource Broker and Shibboleth

In this paper, we propose a role-based access control (RBAC) system for data resources in the Storage Resource Broker (SRB). The SRB is a Data Grid management system, which can integrate heterogeneous data resources of virtual organizations (VOs). The SRB stores the access control information of individual users in the Metadata Catalog (MCAT) database. However, because of the specific MCAT schema structure, this information can only be used by the SRB applications. If VOs also have many non-SRB applications, each with its own storage format for user access control information, it creates a scalability problem with regard to administration. To solve this problem, we developed a RBAC system with Shibboleth, which is an attribute authorization service currently being used in many Grid environments. Thus, the administration overhead is reduced because the role privileges of individual users are now managed by Shibboleth, not by MCAT or applications. In addition, access control policies need to be specified and managed across multiple VOs. For the specification of access control policies, we used the Core and Hierarchical RBAC profile of the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML); and for distributed administration of those policies, we used the Object, Metadata and Artifacts Registry (OMAR). OMAR is based on the e-business eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) registry specifications developed to achieve interoperable registries and repositories. Our RBAC system provides scalable and fine-grain access control and allows privacy protection. Performance analysis shows that our system adds only a small overhead to the existing security infrastructure of the SRB.

Use of ebRIM-based CSW with sensor observation services for registry and discovery of remote-sensing observations

Recent advances in Sensor Web geospatial data capture, such as high-resolution in satellite imagery and Web-ready data processing and modeling technologies, have led to the generation of large numbers of datasets from real-time or near real-time observations and measurements. Finding which sensor or data complies with criteria such as specific times, locations, and scales has become a bottleneck for Sensor Web-based applications, especially remote-sensing observations. In this paper, an architecture for use of the integration Sensor Observation Service (SOS) with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service-Web profile (CSW) is put forward. The architecture consists of a distributed geospatial sensor observation service, a geospatial catalogue service based on the ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM), SOS search and registry middleware, and a geospatial sensor portal. The SOS search and registry middleware finds the potential SOS, generating data granule information and inserting the records into CSW. The contents and sequence of the services, the available observations, and the metadata of the observations registry are described. A prototype system is designed and implemented using the service middleware technology and a standard interface and protocol. The feasibility and the response time of registry and retrieval of observations are evaluated using a realistic Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) SOS scenario. Extracting information from SOS requires the same execution time as record generation for CSW. The average data retrieval response time in SOS+CSW mode is 17.6% of that of the SOS-alone mode. The proposed architecture has the more advantages of SOS search and observation data retrieval than the existing sensor Web enabled systems.

Sharing e-Learning Object Metadata Using ebXML Registries for Semantic Grid Computing

To facilitate the processes of e-learning resource description, discovery and reuse, e-learning objects should be appropriately described and classified using standard metadata that need to be published in a registry to reduce duplication of effort and enhance semantic interoperability. This paper describes how standard ebXML registries can be used for semantic grid computing for annotating, storing, discovering and retrieving e-learning object metadata. For semantic annotation of e-learning objects, IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) is adopted as the metadata ontology. In order to support the e-learning metadata ontology in interoperable ebXML registries, a mapping scheme between LOM and ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) is proposed. The usefulness of sharing e-learning object metadata is demonstrated by prototyping a semantic registry based on the scheme.

서비스 지향 아키텍쳐 하에서 비즈니스 프로세스 명세에 관한 메타 데이터를 공유하기 위한 온톨로지와 등록저장소의 개발 및 관리 방안

전자문서와 같이 기업간거래에 관한 정보자원의 등록저장 및 공유에 있어서 표준화와 활용은 상당한 진척이 이루어졌으나, 비즈니스 프로세스의 경우 이를 정의하는 방법이 다양하고 복잡한 이유로 비즈니스 프로세스 정보자원의 등록저장 및 공유에는 어려움이 많다. 실제로 ebXML BPSS, WS-BPEL, BPMN 등과 같이 서비스 지향 아키텍쳐 하에서 활용가능한 여러 비즈니스 프로세스 정의 언어들이 시장에서 경쟁하고 있으며, 이들을 이용해서 표현된 다양하고 이질적인 비즈니스 프로세스 명세(정의)들을 체계적으로 등록저장하기 위한 방안이 절실히 필요한 상황이다. 이 논문에서는 ebRR4BP라고 하는 기업간 비즈니스 프로세스 등록저장소 프로토타입을 개발하여, 기업간 비즈니스 프로세스 공유의 유용함을 제시하고자 한다. 이를 위해서 먼저 다양한 기업간 비즈니스 프로세스 등록을 위한 메타데이터 온톨로지를 설계하고, 이를 ebXML 등록저장소에 구현할 수 있도록 ebXML 등록저장소 정보모델로 매핑하는 방안도 구체적으로 제시한다. 이러한 온톨로지와 매핑방안은 기업간거래 등록저장소간의 비즈니스 프로세스 메타데이터의 상호교환을 지원하기 위한 밑바탕이 될 것이다. While standardization and its applications for registering and sharing information resources about B2B transactions such as business documents are relatively well developed, it is not easy to register and share business process resources because there are many ways to define complex business processes using different specification(definition) languages. In practice, there are several competing business process specification languages applicable under service-oriented architecture (SOA) such as ebXML BPSS, WS-BPEL, BPMN and so on. A systematic way has to be prepared to register/share diverse and heterogeneous specifications represented using those languages. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of sharing B2B business processes by prototyping a business process registry called ebRR4BP. First of all, we designed a metadata ontology to support the registration of diverse B2B business processes. To implement the proposed metadata ontology using ebXML registries, a mapping scheme to ebXML Registry Information Model is also suggested. The ontology and mapping scheme will be a foundation for supporting common interchange of business process metadata among B2B resistries.

기업간 비즈니스 프로세스 등록저장소를 위한 메타데이터 온톨로지 설계

B2B 등록저장소는 기엽의 프로파일, 비즈니스 문서, 비즈니스 프로세스, 제공 서비스 등의 B2B 관련 비즈니스 정보들을 저장하고 거래 파트너 또는 잠재 거래 파트너들에게 정보를 제공하는 시스템이다. 본 논문에서는 이 중 B2B 비즈니스 프로세스의 등록저장소의 설계에 초점을 맞추어, 이를 지원하기 위한 메타데이터 온톨로지를 제시한다. 현재 ebXML BPSS (Business Process Specification Schema), WSBPEL (Web Service Business Process Execution Language), BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) 등의 다수의 비즈니스 프로세스 정의 언어들이 시장에서 경쟁하고 있다. 이러한 상황을 고려하여, 다수의 다른 프레임워크에서 표현된 비즈니스 프로세스를 등록저장하기 위해서 제시된 메타 데이터 온톨로지는 3개 계층, 공통 메타데이터, 언어별 메타데이터, 상호연관관계 메타데이터로 구성된다. 제시된 메타데이터 온톨로지의 유용성을 보이기 위해서, ebXML BPSS 와 WSBPEL로 표현된 비즈니스 프로세스의 온톨로지 내에 저장을 예제로 제시한다. 또한 제시된 메타데이터 온톨로지의 구현을 위해서 ebXML 등록저장소 정보모델로의 매핑 방안을 제시한다. B2B registries are information systems to register B2B related business information such as companies' profiles, business documents, business processes, and services and to provide query facilities to find information about potential business partners. Focusing on the design of the registry for B2B business processes, in this paper, a metadata ontology is designed to register B2B business processes. In practice, there are several competitive business process definition languages such as ebXML BPSS (Business Process Specification Schema), WSBPEL (Web Service Business Process Execution Language), BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation), and so on. In order to register heterogeneous business processes based on different representation frameworks, the proposed metadata ontology consists of three layers, common metadata, language-specific metadata, and interrelationship metadata. To show the usefulness of the proposed metadata ontology, two examples which are represented by ebXML BPSS and WSBPEL respectively are described in order to show how the proposed metadata ontology is used to registry B2B business processes. To implement the proposed metadata ontology using ebXML registry, metadata mapping scheme to ebRIM (ebXML Registry Information Model) is also suggested.

Exploiting ebXML registry semantic constructs for handling archetype metadata in healthcare informatics

Using archetypes is a promising approach in providing semantic interoperability among healthcare systems. To realise archetype based interoperability, the healthcare systems need to discover the existing archetypes, based on their semantics; annotate their archetypes with ontologies; compose templates from archetypes and retrieve corresponding data from the underlying medical information systems. In this paper, we describe how ebXML Registry semantic constructs can be used for annotating, storing, discovering and retrieving archetypes. For semantic annotation of archetypes, we present an example of an archetype metadata ontology and describe the techniques to access archetype semantics through ebXML query facilities. We present a GUI query facility and describe how the stored procedures, which we introduce, move the semantic support beyond what is currently available in ebXML registries. We also address how archetype data can be retrieved from clinical information systems by using ebXML web services. A comparison of web service technology with the ebXML messaging system is provided to justify the reasons for using web services.

Bolero.net in the semantic web and GRID environment

In this paper, we have focused on using the bolero.net community in the semantic web and grid environment. Bolero.net represents a community with the ambitious initiatives to standardise world trade messaging and to create a community for more efficient international trade. Bolero.net uses a protocol called boleroXML that represents a set of standard electronic documents with the aim of facilitating interoperability amongst the members of the electronic international trade chain. The idea of making the boleroXML standard electronic documents in the form of an OWL ontology is shown in this paper. The main goal of using an ontology of the boleroXML documents is to moderate this kind of web-based community. The way this ontology is connected with web services, as well as web agents, is shown through the use of ebXML Registry and Repository.

Cross-usage of web services and PLIB ontologies to define a B2B exchange process of product catalogues

Our paper proposes an approach that gathers both ontologies and web services technologies in a Business-to-Business (B2B) products exchange model. It proposes a platform that provides answers to three questions required to build such model. To give answer to the HOW part, a software architecture is developed based on JAVA/J2EE web service technologies, and on the PIP2A9 RosettaNet Business Process (BP) model provided as a choreography of exchanges. To answer to the ON WHAT part, the Parts Library Standardisation Initiative (PLIB) ontology is used as a model of contents in order to describe business elements that are the subject of exchange. It allows reducing semantic ambiguities that may occur when identifying products and their characteristics during exchange. Finally, to seek and to find the required web services, a directory that lists these web services has been developed using the ebXML registry specification. This final part gives the answer to the third part of the question: the WHO part.

Enhancing ebXML Registries to Make them OWL Aware

ebXML is a standard from OASIS and UN/CEFACT which specifies an infrastructure to facilitate electronic business. In this paper, we address how ebXML registry semantics support can be further enhanced to make it OWL aware. OWL constructs are represented through ebXML registry information model constructs, and stored procedures are defined in the ebXML registry for processing the OWL semantics. These predefined stored queries provide the necessary means to exploit the enhanced semantics stored in the registry. In this way, an application program does not have to be aware of the details of how this semantics support is achieved in ebXML registry, and does not have to contain additional code to process this semantics. We believe that this approach is quite powerful to associate semantics with registry objects: it becomes possible to retrieve knowledge through queries, the enhancements to the registry are generic and also the registry specification is kept intact. The capabilities provided move the semantics support beyond what is currently available in ebXML registries and it does so by using a standard ontology language. To be able to demonstrate the benefits of the enhancements, we also show how the resulting semantics can be made use of in Web service discovery and composition.

EbXML 표준 적합성 및 상호운용성 테스트 도구의 설계 및 구현

As of an international standard in e-business domains, ebXML solutions are required to be tested and authenticated whether they can satisfy the conformance and interoperability requirements. In this paper, we design and implement the ebXML conformance and interoperability testing tools that observe the standard specification in conformity with ebXML Message Service v2.0, ebXML Registry Service v2.0 and ebXML CPP/A Y2.0. With this regard, our research would serve in building the verification and authentication service infrastructure for fitting standard ebXML e-business solutions with ebXML conformance and interoperability testing tools.

Managing business lifecycle using ebIOP

AbstractIn this paper, we describe how ebIOP (an ebXML compliant B2B interoperability platform) manages the business lifecycle by providing an example scenario. ebIOP provides a common storage for ebIOP components (ebXML applications). ebIOP defines an ebIOP component to be a software implementation of one or more ebXML specifications which is a solution of an e‐commerce pattern (description of an e‐commerce problem). ebIOP contains a server that listens to a port over the TCP/IP protocol for client requests and provides one or more ebIOP components to interact with the partners of the company.We show how ebIOP could be used to handle the business lifecycle with application of the ebIOP to the RosettaNet partner interface processes (PIPs). In the example, a part of the RosettaNet PIPs are registered to an ebXML registry using the ebIOP Registry Client Component, parties that support RosettaNet PIPs register/update their profiles in the ebXML registry. A party prepares an ebXML business process by combining some of the RosettaNet PIPs in a logical order and searches for possible trading partners using the ebIOP Registry Client Component. After locating the trading partners, all partners prepare agreements among themselves and they execute the business process using the ebIOP B2BServer Component. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.