ICS MQRES - Policy-Driven Automated Service Composition for Business Integration
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Scholarships in ICS > Policy-driven automated service composition
Over the years organizations have been constructing extensive networks of communication
links to engage each other in order to deliver their corporate business. For example, the PC maker
Dell links its business processes with its suppliers' to deliver its build-to-order service to
customers. Integration is one of the key elements of an on demand operating IT environment. Integration
is about seamlessly interlinking information, processes, and services that may transcend organizational
boundaries despite the existence of multiple - possibly heterogeneous - platforms and protocols,
and numerous access devices. However, the automated composition of distributed business processes
is still far from being achieved: no effective, easy-to-use, flexible support is provided that
can cope with the life cycle of distributed business processes, with their inevitable evolution
and required adaptation to changes in, e.g., business strategies and markets, customers and provider
relationships, interactions, and so on.
Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) utilizes services as the constructs to support the development of
rapid, low-cost and easy composition of distributed applications. Services are autonomous, platform-independent
computational entities that can be described, published, discovered, and dynamically assembled for
developing massively distributed, interoperable, evolvable systems. SOC builds on the notion of an
Internet-accessible service to represent applications and business processes for integration. An important
economic benefit of the Service Oriented Computing paradigm is that it enables dynamic business integration
by composing services across organizational boundaries.
To amend this situation, we need to abstract away the integration logic at the business level from
its non-business related aspects, the "system level", e.g., the implementation of activities,
control policies. Then, we need to let the business requirements drive and constrain the integration
process. According to this view, service composition at the business level should pose the requirements
and the boundaries for the automatic composition at the system level. While the service composition
at the business level should be supported by user-centred and highly interactive techniques, system
level service compositions should be fully automated and hidden to the humans.
Therefore the aim of this project is to develop a business policy based mechanism in which policies
are used to drive, constrain, and verify the development of business integration in the context of
SOC.
Applicants should have either completed an Australian four-year undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline with high first class honours, or, for overseas applicants, be able to demonstrate equivalent qualifications.
The scholarship pays a living allowance currently $19,231 per annum, tax exempt (2006) and the tenure is 3.5 years full time subject to satisfactory progress. Tuition fees will be funded for the scholarship tenure with domestic students receiving RTS placement for their research degree tuition and International award holders having their fees sponsored.
Further information on the project is available from the supervisor: Jian Yang, telephone 9850 9584, jian@comp.mq.edu.au, (http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/~jian/).
Application forms, and conditions for MQRES awards, are available from the Higher Degree Research Unit by phoning (02) 9850 7663, by e-mailing pgschol@mq.edu.au, or by downloading from http://research.mq.edu.au/students/scholarships.
Applications should be forwarded to:
The Scholarship Officer
Higher Degree Research Unit
Cottage C4C
Macquarie University
NSW 2109
Closing Date: to be advised.