A State Aware Model and Architecture for the Monitoring and Enforcement of Electronic Contracts

Internet, Cloud, and IoT (Internet of Things) based business relationships involve electronic interactions that are normally regulated using Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and contracts that specify the rights, obligations, and prohibitions of the entities involved in the interactions. After a contract has been negotiated and agreed, all parties will need assurances that the service interactions comply with the clauses of the agreements between the parties, and that any violations are detected, prevented, and their causes identified. Because of the dynamic nature of emerging IoT and Cloud based relationships, there is a need for automated support for the monitoring and enforcement of service agreement policies. This paper develops a novel model for representing contract clauses using business rules that is specifically designed for contract compliance checking and enforcement. We identify what events need to be generated and captured from the underlying messaging middleware, and describe key design issues for a state aware contract monitoring and enforcement service.