A Secure Real-time Internal and External Network Data Exchange Method Based on Web Service Protocol

Web service runtime is an important infrastructure middleware for service-based applications. It processes exchanged messages according to web service protocols. Correct implementation of web service protocols is critical for ensuring the reliability of web service runtime. In this paper, we first introduce a Service-Oriented Description Language (SODL) to precisely and concisely describe message processing logics for web service protocol implementations. Then, we propose a formal model for verifiable web service runtime, named FSM4WSR, based on Estelle (an ISO formal description standard). FSM4WSR uses module and channel to capture the essential components of the runtime architecture. Furthermore, the internal behaviors in each module are formally described by using a combination of the extended finite-state machine and SODL. Based on FSM4WSR, we automatically generate the web service protocol implementations and construct a verifiable web service runtime system, named XServices SODL Runtime.

In 1998, Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman, together with thirty distinguished experts in high-performance computing and networking, laid the foundations of a new computing model called GRID. Their vision was introduced in the book, The GRID: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure (see review, SCPE Vol. 3, No. 3 ). The editors wrote: … A computational grid is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides dependable, consistent, pervasive, and inexpensive access to high-end computational capabilities… allowing new classes of applications to emerge… as yet, we have only a preliminary understanding of what these new applications will look like. Over the next five years, Grid computing became the hottest R&D field. Academia and national labs built experimental infrastructures, new startups were established to develop Grid technologies, and the HPC giant vendors joined the party. Each one pushed in a different direction based on what and how he believed Grid computing should look. It was only a matter of time until people started to ask what the Grid is all about. A survey of ten Grid experts produced ten different answers. The question remains without a clear answer, leaving many people confused. Ian Foster picked up the gloves. In his article, What is the GRID? A three point checklist (GRIDtoday, July 22, 2002: Vol. 1, No. 6), he redefines the Grid model to reflect the trades and changes in the field during the past five years. According to Foster, a Grid is a system that: Coordinates resources that are not subject to centralized control. Uses standard, open, general-purpose protocols and interfaces. Delivers a nontrivial quality of service. But Foster's new definition could not encompass all of the Grid's approaches. Moreover, Foster explained by example what the Grid is not: A cluster management system such as Sun's Sun Grid Engine, Platform's Load Sharing Facility, or Viridian's Portable Batch System can, when installed on a parallel computer or local area network, deliver quality of service guarantees and thus constitutes a powerful Grid resource. However, such a system is not a Grid itself, due to its centralized control of the hosts that it manages Within a week the responses started to come in. The first one was from Wolfgang Gentzsch, Director of Grid computing at Sun Microsystems (GRIDtoday, August 5, 2002: Vol. 1, No. 8). Gentzsch wrote: I very much like Ian's two earlier definitions. Combined, they may provide a very generic Grid definition. The new checklist, however, reduces the potential of a wide and rich variety of Grids, with different architectures, operational models, and applications, and may miss the chance to becoming widely accepted as a standard definition of the Grid. Why do we need a definition for the Grid? Can the Grid be defined? Is a definition is necessary to the Grid's development? The Grid is an open vision and thus cannot be defined. An attempt to define the Grid can only reach the foreseen technology horizon, and this horizon is only one to two years ahead. Grid computing is a paradigm in shift. New architectures and standards are changing the shape and direction of the Grid's development. In the past year one such prominent architecture was Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA). The OGSA is the first attempt to bridge the gap between two cyberspace worlds: the Internet and the Grid. The Internet and the Grid are two different computing models. There are people who believe that the Grid is the next generation of the Internet and the World Wide Web, saying that the Great Global Grid is still many years away. Others state that the Grid will complement, not replace, the Internet as we know it. In 1998, when the Grid blueprint was published, a new Internet language appeared called eXtensible Markup Language (XML). XML is a development tool for a new Internet computing model known as Web Services. At that time, nobody understood that there is a relationship between Web Services and the Grid. Three years past before Steve Tuecke from Argonne National Laboratory started to write a spec for Grid Services. Later, people from IBM joined the mission and together they created OGSA. The OGSA specification outlines interfaces to grid computing software that comply with Web Services standards. If adopted, Grid services such as job scheduling, authentication, failure-detection, staging of applications and data, and migration of applications and data, will all be accessed through standard Web Services architecture. OGSA is basically where Grid meets Web Services and maybe the first step towards full integration of the Internet and the Grid. The Internet appeared a decade ago. In the beginning, the Net offered primitive applications: a mailing system, ftp services, and a web of home pages. Nobody asked, What is the Internet? The years passed and new emerging Internet technologies were developed. Today we can talk on the phone over the Net, chat with friends, and video conference with colleagues on the other side of the world. New computing and business models were developed: e-commerce, e-learning, e-science, and e-you-name-it. And nobody asks what the Internet is. The Grid is a super-model, a bag of networking models associated with many types of architectures, software packages, applications, and standards. Today, when people talk about the Grid they mention Data Grids, Science Grids, and Campus Grids. And at the same time they mention Farm computing, Peer-to-peer computing, and Utility computing, among others. Ten years from now many of today's technologies will disappear and new ones will be developed. I don't know how Grid computing will look a decade from now, but I know that we will have g-commerce, g-learning, g-science, and g-chat. Nobody will ask what the Grid is. It will be obvious, just as the Internet is today. Ami Marowka The Computer Aided Design Laboratory School of Engineering and Computer Science Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Security of Computer Networks

Community energy can be conceptualized as a social movement, which aims to develop a sustainable, democratic, and localist energy system. Community energy organizations often take the form of cooperatives and strive for a high level of participation at the neighborhood level. Recently, community energy initiatives took on the challenge to develop neighborhood heating projects, which are citizen-led and sustainable. District heating (DH) projects are characterized by costly investments, a substantial overhaul of local infrastructure, and large installations for heat production. Furthermore, specialized technical knowledge is needed for the design of DH-systems.In the Netherlands, we studied four cases where local energy cooperatives developed such citizen-led neighborhood heating projects. Our primary research question is what constitutes a citizen-led or citizen-supported DH-project? We focus on four themes: first, the internal organization of the CH-project; second its outreach to local citizens; third, the role of technical knowledge and technology choices; fourth, the changing role of municipalities in the local energy transition.We developed a theoretical framework that consists of three main networks: the internal network, constituted by the local energy initiative itself and its surrounding neighborhood; the external network, which is comprised of local and regional governments as well as private companies; and the material network, referring to technological and physical aspects.In the discussion, we situate our findings against a broader European background. We conclude that a democratic structure, transparency of decision making, and a high level of activities to involve the neighborhood are key success factors. Nevertheless, the development of a community DH-project is a time-consuming process that takes a high toll on the participants. We observed that the remunicipalization trend is emerging in the Netherlands. Regarding technology choices, we found that the DH-initiatives became quite knowledgeable on technical issues and stimulated the application of new technologies such as small-scale aquathermal energy. However, in some cases the choice for a low-cost solution led to concessions to the sustainability of the proposed solutions.

The popularity of web services has largely influenced the way in which enterprise business is conducted. Since web services enable easy accessibility of data, dynamic connections, and relatively less human interventions, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of data that is transmitted via web services protocols becomes more significant. If a single service does not fulfill the service consumer requirements, it is necessary to compose several web services, which together satisfy the user requirements. Security attacks occur on SOAP messages that are communicated among web services while accessing a service or during service composition. Most of the existing works on web services security have provided solutions only for ensuring client authentication, confidentiality, and integrity of information in network layer and not in application layer. WS-Security and XML based web service security also provides message layer security in network layer and not in application layer. Hence, a novel approach that prevents the message alteration attack on SOAP messages and a security solution that detects and overcomes XML injection attack have been proposed in this paper. Our approach uses pluggable APIs in the service provider side and security services in the middleware side. The attacks were simulated and non-vulnerability of the proposed solutions to these attacks have been verified.

Web service interfaces are considered as one of the critical components of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and they represent contracts between web service providers and clients (subscribers). These interfaces are frequently modified to meet new requirements. However, these changes in a web service interface typically affect the systems of its subscribers. Thus, it is important for subscribers to estimate the risk of using a specific service and to compare its evolution to other services offering the same features in order to reduce the effort of adapting their applications in the next releases. In addition, the prediction of interface changes may help web service providers to better manage available resources (e.g. programmers’ availability, hard deadlines, etc.) and efficiently schedule required maintenance activities to improve the quality. In this paper, we propose to use machine learning, based on Artificial Neuronal Networks, for the prediction of the evolution of Web services interface design. To this end, we collected training data from quality metrics of previous releases from 6 Web services. The validation of our prediction techniques shows that the predicted metrics value, such as number of operations, on the different releases of the 6 Web services were similar to the expected ones with a very low deviation rate. In addition, most of the quality issues of the studied Web service interfaces were accurately predicted, for the next releases, with an average precision and recall higher than 82 %. The survey conducted with active developers also shows the relevance of prediction technique for both service providers and subscribers.

Web services technologies change the software industry drastically by developing and integrating enterprise web services and applications in order to enable the users to access them. There are several research initiatives in the field of Web services for enterprise applications. However, none of the initiatives have attempted for web applications pertaining to academic institution using Web services technology. Web service composition is the combination of web services from different service providers to create a more sophisticated, value added web service to the web users. Researchers put on efforts to bring out the state-of-the art in web services technologies and security technologies for web services. The composition of web services is another promising area for research and development. A study reveals that there are number of approaches providing secure web services. However, there is no attempt made so far to secure the services at multi-level. This paper proposes a Multi-level Secured Framework (MLSF) for the students, faculty and employees of the academic institutions which provides secured composite web services such as admission service, fees payment service, library service, personalized service and so on. The MLSF enhances the security at various levels such as user level, device level, web services level and institution level.

Data mining and scoring tool providers require users to use provider-specific ways to invoke their services. The provider-specific approach could be a major factor affecting why data mining tools and applications are not currently as widespread as one might hope. However, SOA can implements the loose coupling between the services provider and services consumer. Using Web service protocol (such as SOAP, WSDL and UDDI), the data mining task can be encapsulated into a standard Web services. Services consumer can dynamically bound different services provider based on Web services, which implements the integration of data mining applications with data mining and scoring tool. The Java Data Mining API (JDM) is the first attempt to create a standard Java API to access data-mining tools from Java applications. A new service discovery model where quality of service is taken as constraints when searching for Web services would give some confidence to the Web service consumers about the quality of the service they are about to invoke.

Web service technology (WST) is a service-oriented architecture implementation framework that makes designing component-based internet applications possible. At present, many providers offer their services as web services. Current WST suffers from the lack of an integrated tool to assist web service developers. In WST, the services are published publicly, and their descriptions are stored in service directories. These descriptions contain valuable information about the work of different software teams throughout the world. However, with the increasing number of web services, searching for services is difficult and time-consuming. Furthermore, in current service directories, there is a little knowledge about the services, and extraction of useful information to be utilised by developers is not easy. In this paper, in order to increase the knowledge of what is available in service directories, a structure is presented by interlinking WST entities by using some defined semantic relations. The proposed structure provides a framework and a tool named WSDATool to develop new web services using information from published services or to refine current published web service descriptions. In experiments, services designed with the assistance of the WSDATool are more coherent and well designed.

Virtual enterprise is a temporary network of independent companies or enterprises that can quickly bring together to fulfill a value-added task. With the development of Web service technologies, the enterprise business systems can be encapsulated as Web services. Establishing a virtual enterprise is actually a process of Web services composition. As more and more Web services are available, many Web services with different quality of service (QoS) can be found for tasks of the composite Web service. Thus, a significant research problem in Web service composition is how to select the correct Web services for tasks such that the composite Web service gives the best overall quality. In this paper, we propose an approach to achieve Web services selection efficiently with excellent comprehensive quality. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation model based on generic QoS (GQoS) and domain QoS (DQoS) of composite Web service is established. Secondly, a novel optimization algorithm named culture max–min ant system (C-MMAS) is constructed to solve the problem of Web service selection based on DGQoS. Simulations show that when used in Web service selection, C-MMAS is better than ant colony optimization algorithm and MMAS in efficiency.

Service-Oriented Communication (SOC) is a new development in the industry to enable communication through web services and SOA. SOC is to make communication as service and provide a service-oriented architecture to integrate communication in business applications. Recent advances of web service and SOA have made it possible for a full web service and SOA based communication paradigm over IP. This paper is an overview of the recent development in this area with a focus on key technologies that can be applied to web service enablement of communication. In particular, we discuss the generic web service based application session management based on WS-Session, the two-way full duplex web service interaction framework, and the development of Web Service Initiation Protocol (WIP). WIP is a full web service and SOA based communication protocol for multimedia and voice communication over IP. The generic web service approach of WIP overcomes many limitations which would be otherwise difficult to achieve in non-web service based communication methods used today. In addition, we discuss the service composition and orchestration framework based on WS-BPEL, and illustrate the application of this approach through some real use cases.

Internet and Mobile technologies have greatly changed our lives in the past decade. However, the power and patentlals of the cambined capabilities offered by these two major inventions remain untapped. This paper looks into how we can turn these capabilities into service components that can be assembled into various composite services and enable people to have a simple way to enjoy camprehensive services anytime, anywhere, anyway with user and context relevance. We will explain in this paper how Web Services technologies and Service Oriented Architecture enables rapidly service creation; and the power of combining web technologies and mobile capabilities for service execution. Tourism is ane vertical industry chosen to apply this Service Provisioning concept. A packaged tour prototype is built to demonstrate the creation and execution of various tour services. These packaged tour services inciude both web and mobile service components and are described in service logic. Utilising the published services co...

A Web Service Framework for Measuring and Monitoring Environmental and Carbon Footprint in Construction Supply Chains

A network topology was needed to meet the various needs of the NEPTUNE and VENUS ocean observatories. On the one hand the data are, in principle, all public and should be made available to the world as soon as possible. On the other hand issues such as security of the network and sensitivity of data mean that it is not prudent to put all systems on the public internet. A remote secondary data centre is required in order to maximize data availability and minimize data loss. The topology of the NEPTUNE/VENUS network uses a variety of strategies to fulfill these requirements. The NEPTUNE and VENUS observatories consist of shore stations, a primary data centre and a disaster recovery backup site. The sites are all inter-connected by network links provided by CANARIE and commercial providers. The primary data backhaul line between the Port Alberni shore station and the University of Victoria data centre has a bandwidth capability of 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), the other links are lGbps or less. In addition to the high bandwidth connections we also have secondary connections in case of failures to provide limited connectivity to monitor and control our remote systems. The internal network bandwidth is at least lGbps up to the junction boxes to which the instruments are connected. Connections to the instruments vary greatly depending on the requirements of the data flow to and from the instrument. Most of the system is segregated on a private network that has no public access, however a handful of servers also have interfaces on the public network to serve data and web services to the world. Inside our internal network we have a number of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) to separate various functional components: an undersea VLAN contains most of the instruments and the servers that collect their data, a data VLAN combines all the data processing, archiving and storage elements and management VLANs group other elements such as network devices and shore station infrastructure. We have also implemented VLANs for additional security features; one VLAN to segregate data from acoustic instruments that are considered sensitive by the Canadian and US navies and VLANs to provide limited VPN access to certain devices at the shore stations. There are a variety of situations where individuals such as researchers require access to the underwater instruments. The primary channel to provide this access is through the observatory software. The software bridges the internal and external networks and provides user interfaces the allow authorized individuals to access and control underwater devices. In exceptional circumstances we also create software and/or hardware based VPNs that provide a more direct connection to the instruments and some infrastructure components. In case of a major disaster that causes extensive damage to the data centre we have implemented a backup centre in Saskatchewan. This site can take over the data searching and other web-based services. Data in both the database and the file archive are continuously replicated to this backup site. The Saskatchewan systems are also currently being used as a secondary web site. We are using a global load balancing system that distributes requests between the primary data centre and the backup site. In case of a failure at either end the other end can take over until the situation is resolved.

The new technology of Web services is beginning to impact the global business approaches and trends in which the services are being offered and consumed. The advancement of Web services and its wide spread use require that its quality of service (QoS) components to be highly dependable and robust. It is clear that one of the major inevitable challenges facing the business organizations today is to provide adequate QoS aspects for Web services. This paper gathers together the various techniques that can be used for measuring and optimizing the major QoS requirements for Web services proposed by the World Wide Consortium (W3C), while presenting a methodology to build QoS-aware Web services. A software model was designed and implemented to test a Web service and perform the experiments to quantitatively measure the QoS requirements involved in a Web service. Various modeling tests and experiments were designed and conducted to illustrate the proposed QoS measurement metrics. The techniques discussed in this paper can be incorporated into the planning, design, implementation, deployment, operational and maintenance phases during a Web service development lifecycle.