A Mediated Access Control Infrastructure for Dynamic Service Selection

The vision of smart business networks is grounded on collaborative collections of loosely coupled and sometimes even competing companies which are operating across physical distances but committed to common goals and objectives. In such a network information and communication technologies are extensively used to enhance the individual businesses, integrate their competencies and skills and thereby develop new business potential for the benefit of all partnering organizations.

In this book it is argued that as a technical infrastructure for smart business networks service oriented architecture (SOA) might serve very well. However, there is a growing consensus on the fact that current SOA have not yet fully delivered their promise of spontaneous and "on-the-fly" service discovery, substitution, and composition because a mediating instance, i.e. one that formalizes the meaning of services and their preand post-conditions as well as non-functional properties, was missing. This missing link can be provided, for example, by a central enterprise service bus (ESB). Against this background and from the viewpoint of the different technical entities involved in a smart business network setting the author overviews, analyzes, discusses, and puts into perspective the requirements and technologies that can be used to build and operate a more flexible dynamic SOA.

Putting its focus merely on the technical aspects this work is concentrating around questions like what is the potential of SOA for smart business networks, how can selected security and trust features be effectively incorporated into SOA or how can an ESB be designed and prototyped which is able to support dynamic service selection during runtime. The findings of the author are based on real world requirements and the concepts and prototypes developed are tested under real world conditions within a large European funded research project.

In summary, this book covers the state-of-the-art and recent developments in Web Services based SOA, the design of a central ESB mediating between service provider and consumer, and a discussion of security features which become essential in the case dynamic service selection shall be supported. Whether you are a member of a technical staff of a company who must address SOA, dynamic service selection or security challenges, a student, or a researcher, this book will provide you with an comprehensive understanding of the challenges involved, the solutions likely to be included in future technical infrastructures supporting smart business networks, as well as a sense of the evolution of existing standards, products and proposals to meet these critical business needs.

Prof. Dr. Günther Pernul