Deliverable D2.1: State-of-the-art report

Abstract

This document aims at evaluating the current state-of-the-art in modern information technologies that may be used within the SPIKE project. The key technologies of SPIKE will comprise

• Semantic web and semantic modelling
• Business process and workflow technology
• Security services
• SOA leveraging Web Services and an Enterprise Service Bus
• Portal Technology and portals for user interaction

As SPIKE aims to leverage pre-existing open-source software where possible, we additionally present existing tools providing support and therefore helping us to achieve SPIKE’s objectives.

The SPIKE platform tries to support the building of networked enterprises, business alliances and collaboration between partners by adjusting and combining innovative technological building blocks such as:

• Semantic web and semantic modelling
• Business process modelling and workflow
• Security services
• SOA leveraging Web Services and an Enterprise Service Bus
• Portal Technology and Portlets for user interaction

SPIKE Deliverable D2.1 State-of-the-art report is one of the more research oriented deliverables in the SPIKE list of deliverables. Its primary focus is to assess the state-of-the-art as well as theoretical and technical foundations in different fields.

We start by introducing several common and tool/product specific evaluation criteria. These criteria are used to evaluate the tools and products which might be candidates for consideration in SPIKE. Using these criteria we are able to give a well-structured and concise overview of existing products and tools and it will bring the project consortium in the position to later evaluate their use within SPIKE.

Subsequently we lay down the theoretical and technical foundations of SPIKE’s major building blocks. We start by introducing the idea of networked enterprises and business alliances, which are the basic principles of the SPIKE platform. We subsequently introduce the state-of-the-art in a variety of technology areas. Within the SPIKE project these technologies make up the major building blocks and will be leveraged and beyond that they will be advanced to fully achieve SPIKE’s objectives:

• The sections on Semantic Web and Semantic Modelling introduce several frameworks for the development of a semantically enriched service oriented infrastructure. The OWL/OWL-S and WSMO/WSML/WSMX frameworks seem to be the most promising candidates, since they support a service-oriented approach that forms the basis of the SPIKE platform.
• The section on Business Process Management and Workflow presents several well-known patterns like control-flow patterns or data and resource patterns before the state-of-the-art in visual and executable Business Process Modelling is shown. These patterns and modelling and execution languages are of particular interest as the SPIKE platform will support cooperation by providing ad-hoc workflow and process functionality, generic reference processes and adaptable patterns for collaboration and value chain connection.
• The chapter on Security presents current developments and trends in that field. As SPIKE will be a platform that combines, aggregates and merges services provided by different service providers, it has to include an easy-to-administer security infrastructure, which in turn provides basic and advanced security services for service and workflow management of the networked enterprise.
• Subsequently we introduce the concepts of Service Oriented Architecture and Web Services as SPIKE targets to realize business alliances on the basis of Web Service interaction. Web Services provide a basis for service providers of a business alliance to offer their services through standard interfaces and enable exposition of any functionality that can be wrapped by such service interfaces.
• At the user interface level the SPIKE platform will follow a collaborative process portal approach, capturing the user’s working context and seamlessly transmitting it to other applications and services according to the current workflow. Therefore we present the current state of technological development in the field of portals. We distinguish between different types of portals and introduce two categorisation schemata. According to our findings, current portal technologies and their theoretical backgrounds either do not consider the semantics of inter-portlet communication or are not generic enough.
• Last but not least we introduce the concept of the Enterprise Service Bus. Within SPIKE such a bus will the central coordination and maintenance unit. We present several different bus concepts ranging from being an architectural style to being a software product or a group of software products. Within the SPIKE platform a service bus will provide services for message and process control and semantic filtering and transformation of messages. We therefore highlight the generally accepted core functions of an ESB and present standards in that field.

While the first part of the document contains rather theoretical and technical sections the second part starting with section 4 presents pre-existing products and tools for the respective technology. We use the criteria laid-out in section 2 to roughly assess the presented tools in reference to their particular applicability within the SPIKE project. Overall we evaluate 39 free and open source tools and further 39 commercial products. A deeper analysis and the decision which technologies and tools will be used within SPIKE will be contained in several subsequent deliverables, primarily D3.1, D4.1, D5.1, D6.2 and D7.1.

Finally the SPIKE state-of-the-art report is closed by a conclusion, which shows how the collected information will be used and identifies subsequent tasks and deliverables that will be based upon the presented findings.

You can download a short version of this document here:

D2.1 State-of-the-art report

In order to obtain the full content of this document, please use the contact form below: