QoS awareness support in Web-Service semantics

Web Services (WSs) are a new breed of web application that have brought out quite challenging research issues. One of these is the establishment of an interoperable semantic framework suitable to represent all potential features of WSs. Apart from the functional properties that have already been modeled via standardized tools, there are also the nonfunctional features of WSs i.e. their Quality-of-Service, which in most cases are not included in the WS description. Nevertheless, integrating QoS features in WS profiles is to the advantage of both users and providers, as it supports QoS-aware WS selection and composition addressing the user’s QoS requirements, while enabling WS providers to increase their profit in the e-business domain. This paper is concerned with the creation of a QoS ontology framework adequate for WS provision. It has sprang from the work carried out in the IST-Amigo1 Integrated Project for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) homes, which aims to develop an open, standardized platform for the provision of QoSaware AmI Web Services in home environments.