Performance comparison of SOAP and REST based Web Services for Enterprise Application Integration

Web Services are common means to exchange data and information over the network. Web Services make themselves available over the internet, where technology and platform are independent. Once web services are built it is accessed via uniform resource locator (URL) and their functionalities can be utilized in the application domain. Web services are self-contained, modular, distributed and dynamic in nature. These web services are described and then published in Service Registry e.g., UDDI and then they are invoked over the Internet. Web Services are basic Building blocks of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). These web services can be developed based on two interaction styles such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer Protocol (REST). It is important to select appropriate interaction styles i.e., either SOAP or REST for building Web Sevices. Choosing service interaction style is an important architectural decision for designers and developers, as it influences the underlying requirements for implementing web service solutions. In this study, the performance of application of web services for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) based on SOAP and REST is compared. Since web services operate over network throughput and response time are considered as a metrics parameter for evaluation.