Modeling Quality of Services in Service Oriented Environments

Information technology is the core enabler for global businesses. Based on an integration of services provided by companies, virtual enterprises are built to achieve business goals. This integration can be supported or even automated, if companies publish a standardized description of the services they offer in a formal, computer-readable way. This paper argues that service orientation offers a promising approach to achieve this goal. Furthermore, the paper introduces a formal model for enriched service description that goes beyond technical interface specifications by including Quality of Service properties. We illustrate the model in usage scenarios like automated discovery and substitution of services as well as for optimized composition of services to support service oriented processes. Furthermore, the Quality of Service properties will be integrated in the general service model.