Realising service-oriented architecture through context-based dynamic service invocation

Abstract

The Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) model promotes reusability of software services, achieved through the conscious application of the loose-coupling concept when assembling or building systems. In this SOA computing paradigm, heterogeneity is a key feature, from platforms to programming languages and messaging protocols. As such, invocations of services are expected not to be limited to XML or SOAP (as used in Web Services) only, but to be multi-protocol based. Furthermore, realisation of loose coupling would imply that the usage of services is not rigidly specified during design time, but able to be changed and configured during its lifetime. This leads to the desire also for runtime configurability of inter-service dependencies with dynamic invocations capability. This paper outlines an approach that allows for runtime configurability across different messaging protocols for dynamic invocation of services. This paper also discusses implementation examples of this approach, including the ability to handle inputs mismatch between services, using the aid of contextual mappings via a XML rule-based engine.