Analyzing Web Service Choreography Specifications Using Colored Petri Nets

Enacting cross-organizational business processes requires critical support for long-running and complex interactions involving multiple participants. The Web Services Choreography Description Language (WS-CDL) aims at facilitating just that, by providing means to describe correlated message exchanges among services geared towards achieving a business goal. While WSCDL specifications are machine-readable documents, they do not necessarily allow developers to determine--by direct inspection--whetheror not the patterns of message exchanges they stipulate do indeed describethe intended service behavior. In this research paper, we show how Colored Petri Nets (CPN) can be used to analyze WS-CDL documents in order to identify faults in the specification. We have developed a research prototype that assists in the creation of a CPN model from a given WS-CDL document. The CPN model generated is then analyzed using the formal verification environment and simulation capability provided by CPN-Tools. We provide a discussion on the analysis of an example WS-CDL document using this approach, as well as on the advantages and limitations of using CPN for analyzing WS-CDL specifications.

[1]  Yun Peng,et al.  Using Colored Petri Nets for Conversation Modeling , 2000, Issues in Agent Communication.

[2]  Valentín Valero,et al.  Model Checking Techniques applied to the design of Web Services , 2007, CLEI Electron. J..

[3]  Kurt Jensen,et al.  Coloured Petri Nets: Basic Concepts, Analysis Methods and Practical Use. Vol. 2, Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[4]  Philippe Dague,et al.  A Decentralized Model-Based Diagnosis for BPEL Services , 2009, 2009 21st IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence.

[5]  Giovanni Denaro,et al.  Petri Nets and Software Engineering , 2003, Lectures on Concurrency and Petri Nets.

[6]  Feng Liu,et al.  Exploiting hierarchical CP-nets to increase the reliability of Web services workflow , 2006, International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT'06).

[7]  Jing Liu,et al.  The Validation and Verification of WSCDL , 2007, 14th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC'07).

[8]  Ziyu Lin,et al.  Modeling and verifying web service composition using colored petri nets based on WSCI , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management.

[9]  Hyo-Won Suh,et al.  A timed colored Petri nets modeling for dynamic workflow in product development process , 2008, Comput. Ind..

[10]  David B. MacQueen,et al.  The Definition of Standard ML (Revised) , 1997 .

[11]  Lars Michael Kristensen,et al.  Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools for modelling and validation of concurrent systems , 2007, International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer.

[12]  Wolfgang Reisig,et al.  Lectures on Concurrency and Petri Nets , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[13]  James Lyle Peterson,et al.  Petri net theory and the modeling of systems , 1981 .

[14]  Sebastián Uchitel,et al.  Model-Based Analysis of Obligations in Web Service Choreography , 2006, Advanced Int'l Conference on Telecommunications and Int'l Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services (AICT-ICIW'06).

[15]  Kamal Bhattacharya,et al.  Modeling Business Contexture and Behavior Using Business Artifacts , 2007, CAiSE.

[16]  Data-Enriched Modeling and Verification of WS-CDL Based on UML Models , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Web Services.

[17]  Kurt Jensen,et al.  Coloured Petri Nets , 1997, Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science An EATCS Series.

[18]  Frank Dignum,et al.  Issues in Agent Communication , 2000, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[19]  Gregor Hohpe.  Let's Have a Conversation , 2007, IEEE Internet Computing.

[20]  Robin Milner,et al.  Definition of standard ML , 1990 .

[21]  Karthikeyan Umapathy.  From Service Conversation Models to WS-CDL , 2009, AMCIS.

[22]  Marlon Dumas,et al.  Execution Semantics for Service Choreographies , 2006, WS-FM.

[23]  Andrew D. Gordon,et al.  Verified Reference Implementations of WS-Security Protocols , 2006, WS-FM.

[24]  Santhosh Kumaran,et al.  Conversation support for business process integration , 2002, Proceedings. Sixth International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing.

[25]  Yunni Xia,et al.  Formalizing Web Service Choreography Interface , 2007, 21st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (AINAW'07).