Combining Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Negotiation for Agent-Based Web Service Composition

The paper presents an architecture and a methodology for agent-based Web service discovery and composition. We assume that Web services are described in DAML-S. Since DAML-S represents declarative information about services, symbolic reasoning can be applied for search or composition of new services automatically. We propose the usage of symbolic agent negotiation for dynamic Web service discovery and composition, while nonsymbolic negotiation is applied for negotiating over the cost or other attributes of the composite service. Therefore, by using symbolic negotiation for automated service composition, we support declarative information gathering and integration during service composition, whilst non-symbolic negotiation facilitates pragmatic issues of Web service execution.