A broker-based framework for QoS-aware Web service composition

Web services are modular web applications that can be independently deployed and invoked by other software or services on the web. This offers enterprises the capability to integrate in-house business services with external Web services to conduct complex business transactions. The integration efficiency and flexibility are critical for services composition. For Web services providing a similar functionality, Quality of Service (QoS) is the main factor to differentiate them. The overall QoS of a business process must meet a user's requirement. In this paper, we propose a broker-based framework to facilitate dynamic integration and adaptation of QoS-aware Web services with end-to-end QoS constraints. The key functions of a dynamic broker include service collection, selection, composition and adaptation. Our study considers both functional and QoS characteristics of Web services to identify the optimal business process solutions.