The last two decades have shown a major shift from stand-alone to networked information technology (IT) systems. Consequently, the effective and efficient achievement of interoperability is a key factor to enable seamless business process chains and networks across intra- and inter-organizational boundaries. Thereby, interoperability can be understood along three dimensions: technical, semantic and organizational interoperability.
While the concept of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and widely accepted Web service standards have benefited technical interoperability in recent years substantially, managing and integrating semantic differences in heterogeneous distributed environments remains critical and cost intensive. In order to preserve the precise meaning as data is moved from one IT system to another, explicit formal information models in terms of ontologies have evolved as the concept of choice from academia to first industry adoption. However, it has been recognized that the dominant approach of developing a common, globally shared ontology as an information model standard has turned out to be limited in real world cross-domain environments. Organizational boundaries with regard to consensus degree and the complexity deriving from inherent domain-specific differences in requirements force a coexistence of independently managed but however semantic interoperable information models.
In order to address this challenge, the guiding idea of this work is to transfer the principle of loose coupling to the semantic level. In particular, the goal of this thesis is to contribute to the reduction of complexity in semantic system integration by developing an effective and efficient approach for semantic interoperability in large-scale SOA landscapes based on semantic mediation between loosely coupled information models. Moreover, this work shows how emerging semantic technologies can contribute to the instantiation of this concept exploiting their capabilities to explicitly express semantics.
The developed approach is evaluated based on a case study of an exemplary distributed organization. It is shown how the approach of semantic mediation between loosely coupled information models can be applied in practice and which benefits can be generated with regard to achieving effective and efficient semantic interoperability in large-scale SOA landscapes.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Abstract
- Zusammenfassung
- Preface
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1 Motivation
- 1.2 Objectives and Goals
- 1.3 Research Approach and Structure of the Thesis
- 1.4 Related Work
- 2. Conceptual Foundations
- 2.1 Interoperability and Semantic Interoperability
- 2.1.1 Interoperability Framework
- 2.1.2 Semantic Interoperability and Information Models
- 2.2 Service-Oriented Architecture
- 2.2.1 SOA Architecture
- 2.2.2 SOA Design Principles
- 2.2.3 SOA Standards and Technologies
- 2.3 Loose Coupling
- 2.3.1 Benefits of Loose Coupling
- 2.3.2 Characteristics of Loose Coupling
- 2.3.3 Loose Coupling in SOA
- 2.4 Semantic Technologies
- 2.4.1 Ontologies and Description Logics
- 2.4.2 Rule-Based Semantic Reasoning
- 3. Semantic Interoperability in SOA
- 3.1 Semantic Interoperability Approaches
- 3.1.1 Global Ontologies
- 3.1.2 Ontology Mapping
- 3.1.3 Semantic Brokers
- 3.1.4 Federated Ontologies
- 3.2 Challenges and Requirements for Semantic Interoperability in SOA
- 3.2.1 Heterogeneity
- 3.2.2 Distributed Environments
- 3.2.3 Organizational Boundaries
- 3.2.4 Scalability
- 3.2.5 Maintainability
- 3.3 Analysis of Existing Approaches
- 3.3.1 Global Ontology Approach
- 3.3.2 Ontology Mapping Approach
- 3.3.3 Semantic Broker Approach
- 3.3.4 Federated Ontology Approach
- 4. Semantic Mediation: A Concept for Loosely Coupled Information Models
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Conceptual Framework
- 4.2.1 Principle of Loose Coupling Applied to Information Models
- 4.2.2 Loosely Coupled Information Models in SOA
- 4.3 Semantic Mediation Mechanism
- 4.3.1 Rule-Based Semantic Bridges
- 4.3.2 Self-Contained Domain Ontologies
- 4.3.3 Facet Analysis Classification
- 4.3.4 Declarative Entity Manipulation
- 4.4 Implementation of Semantic Mediation
- 4.4.1 Semantic Mediation Toolkit
- 4.4.2 Implementation of Semantic Bridges
- 4.4.3 Implementation of Domain Ontologies
- 4.4.4 Semantic Mediation Methodology
- 4.5 Evaluation of the Semantic Mediation Concept
- 4.5.1 Effectiveness of Semantic Mediation
- 4.5.2 Efficiency of Semantic Mediation
- 5. Semantic Mediation in Practice: Case Study and Results
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 Case Study: Distributed Organization
- 5.2.1 Scenario Description
- 5.2.2 Business Processes and Information Models
- 5.3 Implementation of Semantic Mediation
- 5.3.1 Modeling of Semantic Bridges
- 5.3.2 Implementation of Domain Ontologies
- 5.4 Evaluation of the Semantic Mediation Approach
- 5.4.1 Effectiveness of Semantic Mediation
- 5.4.2 Efficiency of Semantic Mediation
- 6. Conclusions and Future Work
- 6.1 Summary of Contributions
- 6.2 Future Research Directions
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This dissertation focuses on the development of a semantic interoperability approach for service-oriented architectures (SOA) based on the principle of loose coupling. The aim is to reduce complexity and improve efficiency in semantic system integration by enabling semantic mediation between loosely coupled information models.- Semantic interoperability in SOA
- Loose coupling in information models
- Semantic mediation mechanism
- Application of semantic technologies
- Evaluation of the developed approach
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Chapter 1: This chapter introduces the motivation behind this dissertation, outlines the research objectives and goals, presents the chosen research approach and structure of the thesis, and discusses related work in the field of semantic interoperability in SOA.
- Chapter 2: This chapter provides the conceptual foundations for the dissertation. It covers topics such as interoperability and semantic interoperability, the concept of service-oriented architectures (SOA), the principle of loose coupling, and a brief overview of relevant semantic technologies.
- Chapter 3: This chapter focuses on semantic interoperability in SOA, discussing various approaches and their challenges. It also presents an analysis of existing approaches, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
- Chapter 4: This chapter introduces the concept of semantic mediation between loosely coupled information models. It outlines the conceptual framework for this approach, describes the semantic mediation mechanism, and discusses its implementation and evaluation.
- Chapter 5: This chapter presents a case study demonstrating the practical application of the developed semantic mediation approach. It discusses the implementation of the approach in a distributed organization and evaluates its effectiveness and efficiency.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This dissertation explores the key concepts of semantic interoperability, loose coupling, information models, ontologies, description logics, rule-based reasoning, and semantic mediation. It aims to develop a practical and efficient approach for achieving semantic interoperability in large-scale SOA landscapes, focusing on the use of semantic technologies to manage and integrate heterogeneous information systems.- Quote paper
- Nils Barnickel (Author), 2011, Semantic Mediation between Loosely Coupled Information Models in Service-Oriented Architectures, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/275742
