Semantic Monitoring of Service-Oriented Business Processes

Abstract

Monitoring of business processes and service-oriented systems is a critical enabling technology for improving visibility into business operations, allowing their optimization, adjustments, and restructuring. One of the major problems of current monitoring methods is the prevalent heterogeneity of various types existing among the applications and services used in complex distributed business process. In this chapter the author proposes semantic monitoring as a possible solution addressing some of the heterogeneity problems. The idea of semantic monitoring is to apply semantic annotations, using ontologies, to descriptions of event types and event instances emitted during interactions with integrated applications. The chapter introduces a generic semantic monitoring framework consisting of a modular monitoring ontology and appropriate event detection mechanisms. The monitoring ontology defines generic, language independent monitoring concepts, and the language specific modules defining taxonomy of event types specific to a particular process modeling language/methodology. The author presents two such modules, one developed for the OWL-S Semantic Web services process models, and the other that for a business artifact-centric approach to business process specification. Next, the chapter describes mechanisms for specification and detection of semantic composite events. The author presents a language based on an event algebra combined with semantic event-filtering expressions using description logics atoms enriched with OWL datatypes and SWRL built-ins. Semantic filtering allows detection of such events that would otherwise be impossible without the use of semantic descriptions. The chapter also discusses detection mechanisms suitable for runtime execution and after-execution analysis.