The importance of web services has been raised as an enabler
of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). As a result, most software communities
who are related in the planning, development and management of SOA have
significantly interested in Web Services quality. This document specifies web services
quality factors conceptually along with definition and explanation of
sub-factors. This chapter presents the basic characteristics of web services
and quality factors induced from them.
Web services have distinguished characteristics different
from installation-based software because of their service-oriented nature. The
provider and consumer of services could belong to different ownership domains
so that there are many cases that a service cannot meet the consumer’s service
requirements in respect of service quality and content. Web services are
usually invoked through networks, so the network performance critically affects
the overall web service quality. As a web service client binds to a web service
server with loosely-coupled manner and various binding mechanisms, both client
and server could be bound easily and flexibly. On the contrary, the client and
the server cannot guarantee for proper operating performance. They may be
operated platform-independently, so it requires more efforts for guaranteeing
interoperability between them. Even though web services are based on standard
protocols of communication, misconception of the protocols can produce critical
results in non-interoperable services.
<Figure 1-1> Extracting Quality Factors of WS
Due to the characteristics described above, web services
show distinct quality characteristics from those of general software. Firstly,
the usage of web services is highly sensitive to their quality, especially in
regard to performance and business. A web service consumer is willing to change
a service while using it if it cannot satisfy his requirements on performance
or business. Most of web service consumers have an interest in the quality of web
services and thus would correspond to the quality problem immediately.
Secondly, as web services are operated in the close relation with the other
systems, the web service quality depends on the peripheral technical
environment: network, security system, and software resource system, and
business effectiveness. For example, the quality of transport media influences deeply
on the web service quality. Consequently, even though a web service shows very
rapid response time on the server side, we cannot expect rapid response time if
the bandwidth of transport network is narrow. In the same way, although a web
service has been implemented efficiently, it is difficult to expect good
performance of the web service when a service provider has low processing capability.
Thirdly, a web service client and a server are bound loosely and variously. The
web service client can change the web service server dynamically, so the client
can experience considerable variation of web service quality. The client can
change web services in real-time when the quality is not satisfied. Fourthly, a
web service consumer is usually not able or restricted to manage and control a web
service, because in many cases a consumer’s domain is different from a service
provider’s. Accordingly, the web service consumer requires guaranteeing the
higher level of web service quality. Finally, more effort to assure
interoperability of web services is required, because a web service client and
a server system could be deployed on heterogeneous platforms and web service
developers could misunderstand related standards.
To summarize above, the characteristics of web services lead
to the distinguished characteristics of web service qualities unlike those of
installation-based software. Therefore, it is required to induce quality items
in alignment with consideration of these characteristics of web service quality
during overall web service lifecycle.
A web service quality factor refers to a group of items which
represent web service’s functional and non-functional properties (or values) to
share the concept of web services quality among web service stakeholders. Based
on the characteristics of web service quality described previously, the web
service quality factors are composed of business value quality, service level
measurement quality, interoperability quality, business processing quality,
manageability quality and security quality.
Based on whether quality factors are related with business
perspective or system perspective, they can be categorized into two groups: the
business quality group and the system quality group (Refer to <Figure 1-2>).
Business quality group includes only the business value quality factor. System
quality group is comprised of the variant quality part and the invariant
quality part. The variant quality part includes quality factors whose values can
be dynamically varied in run-time while a service is being used. On the while,
the invariant quality part refers to quality factors whose values are
determined as soon as the service development is completed. The invariant
quality part includes interoperability quality, business processing quality,
manageability quality and security quality.
Business value quality refers to a business perspective to
help to make the right selection of a service by evaluating the business value
of web services. For evaluating business value, it includes the sub-factors:
price, penalty and incentive, business performance, service recognition,
service reputation and service provider reputation. Service level measurement
quality measures the performance of web services in numeric value: response
time, maximum throughput, availability, accessibility and successability.
Interoperability
quality is a quality factor to evaluate whether a web service system conforms
to standard adoptability, standard conformability and relative proofness. Web
services may be used in mission-critical work between business partners, and in
that case reliability and stability of web services are very important quality
items. The business processing quality factor evaluates these items, including
messaging reliability, transaction integrity and collaborability. Manageability
quality is about to whether web services are manageable or managed items,
including informability, observability and controllability, web services are
also vulnerable to security attack and fraud of their frequent exposure to open
networks. Security quality guarantees the safety of web services for use. That
is, it is a collection of quality items to evaluate the functionality and the
metric performance of a security system. It includes the sub-factors:
encryption, authentication, authorization, integrity, non-repudiation,
availability, audit and privacy.
<Figure 1‑2>
Structure of Web Services quality factor
The intended audiences of this document include
non-exhaustively:
- Quality associates of web services and SOA: quality managers,
quality assurers, quality authenticators, quality information providers,
etc.
- Architects and developers designing, identifying or developing a
system based on web services or SOA concept.
- Standard architects and analysts developing specifications of web
services or SOA.
- Decision makers seeking a "consistent and
common" understanding of web services or SOA.
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL
NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
[RFC2119] S.
Bradner, Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt,
IETF RFC 2119, March 1997.
None
When a service party decides to use a web service for
business, it should consider surely the value of the service on the business.
In some cases, the web service may give positive value such as profit,
convenience, collaboration to the service party. But in the other cases, it may
impose more burdens on the party than the value it delivers. For example, it
may require an extra cost for keeping the service in stable condition or cause
economic loss due to service provider’s failure to meet promised quality. As a
result, web service consumers tend to be very sensitive generally to the value
of web services on a business.
The business value of web services means the economic worth
delivered by applying web services on a business. The business value depends on
the price of a service, a penalty/compensation policy, service recognition,
service reputation and service provider reputation. In addition to those
sub-factors, business benefit, profit, and ROI (return on investment) caused by
web services could be added in the business value quality. But, it’s very
difficult to evaluate these values by the effect caused by web services alone
because the values depend heavily on each individual business context. Thus, we
exclude the business benefit, profit, and ROI from the business value quality.
The price and the penalty/compensation sub-factors represent
the monetary value, which could be determined by a service provider or the
contract between a service provider and a consumer. The service recognition,
the service reputation and the service provider reputation are related with the
trust of web services, so they could be evaluated as a part of business value.
Business value quality provides a business perspective to
help to make a right selection of service by evaluating the business value of
web services. Consumers refer to the value of this factor to reach a decision
to select the most appropriate web service for a given business.
2.2
Sub Quality Factors
The price sub-factor is a monetary value of service that a
consumer pays for services to a provider while or after using web services. The
price of a web service can be determined by a service provider. A service
consumer considers the price of a web service in respect of the functions,
contents, and the quality of the web service in order to make the decision
whether he uses the web service. For general software, users pay overall price
for a software package. On the contrary, a consumer has to pay the fee of a web
service continuously based on the amount of time usage or use data, so he has
continuously interest in the service price. Therefore, the price of a web
service affects in the usage of the web service. A service provider should
decide the appropriate price by considering the service quality and value. In
relation to the price factor, a billing method is also important quality factor
for measuring business value of a web service. For example, a reasonable and
systematic billing system can improve the trust of a web service. A convenient
billing system, a discount policy, and mileage points enhance consumer’s
loyalty.
Penalty or compensation is the financial compensation for
business losses due to nonfulfillment of a contract or failure to meet promised
quality. Penalty can be charged to a service provider or a service consumer
based on a contract. When a service provider fails to keep service quality
levels specified in the contract, the service provider needs to compensate for
the loss of a service consumer. The compensation rules need to be specified in
the contract. Penalty can be calculated based on service downtime, maximum or
average response times, or security requirements of a service, and so on. The
performance monitoring of the web service is necessary to determine whether
compensation is required or not, and how much compensation is required. Penalty
can be charged to a service consumer when the consumer breaches the contract
unilaterally, which brings financial loss to a service provider.
On the contrary, incentives as positive rewards can be
specified in a contract. For example, an incentive can be paid when a service
provider has provided higher quality than the quality level specified in the
contract. In addition, an incentive can be paid to a service consumer when the
servicer consumer uses a service more than a certain usage level during a given
time period.
In the case that a service provider provides commodities and
services in the real world as well as information by web services, the
performance of business activity provided for them affects the business value
of the web services directly. For example, consider a delivery service with
which web services are provided for an order and a payment process. In this
case, all the processes including the order, confirmation, delivery,
notification and payment which are all connected within the information flow
and business activity flow. Overall service quality is related with the
capability of the business body as well as the quality of web services.
Business performance is defined as the capability of a business
party performing business activities for services. The business performance can
be measured by the time it takes to complete a business service or the
throughput. The time to complete is composed of the duration for performing
business activities and a latency for ready or a condition. The throughput is
the amount of outcomes for a service per a unit time
2.2.4
Service Recognition
Service recognition quality is defined by how many potential
consumers perceive the existence of a service. That is, it is related to the
popularity of the service. A highly recognized service means that it has more
potential for many people to use the web service. Service recognition can be
measured by various methods. For example, it can be estimated by the number of
clicks on a service description in a service registry or the number of page
views on a service web page.
Service recognition is not derived from the service
consumer’s experience of service usage. Also, the service recognition level can
be improved through promotion or advertising of a web service. However, it does
not guarantee the superiority of the other quality factors of the web service
such as response time, availability, and reliability.
2.2.5 Service Reputation
Service reputation is a social evaluation of service
consumers toward a web service. It refers to consumers’ opinions on the quality
of web services. Service reputation can be evaluated by performing a survey or
vote on service quality and consumer satisfaction. In addition, service
reputation can be estimated from the replies, comments or reviews of service
consumers. Service reputation is very influential for potential service
consumers to select web services.
While service recognition reflects expectation of the
service value before use, service reputation mainly refers to the experienced
service quality after use.
Service provider reputation is the opinion of the group of
service parties toward a service provider on certain criteria. Service provider
reputation is an asset that gives the service provider a competitive advantage
because a service provider with a good reputation will be regarded as a
reliable, credible, trustworthy and responsible one for service consumers. It
can be sustained through consistent quality management activities on services as
a whole. Service provider reputation can be influenced by customer’s previous
experience on other services of the provider as well as advertisement or public
relations.
Service consumers pay attention to service provider reputation
as well as a service itself. Service provider reputation can be estimated by
brand value, financial soundness, the quality of customer service, technical
support and sustainability of a service provider. .
3
Service Level Measurement Quality
As a service
could be provided by third parties and invoked dynamically via network, service
performance might be varied by the network speed or the number of connected
users at a given time. Service Level Measurement quality is a set of
quantitative attributes which describe the runtime service responsiveness in a
view of consumers. This quality factor represents how quickly and soundly web
services can respond which can be measured numerically on system.
Service Level Measurement
Quality consists of five sub-quality factors; response time, maximum throughput,
availability, accessibility, and successability.
3.2
Sub Quality Factors
Response time refers to
duration from the time of sending a request to the time of receiving a
response. The response time can be varied by the point of measurement and
affected by three types of latency: client latency, network latency and server
latency as depicted in <Figure 3-1>.
Client latency refers to the
delay time caused by a client system in the whole processing time for a service
request. It is a sum of the time taken between ‘a client application requests a
service’ event and ‘the request is sent by a client’ event (t1~t2), and the
time taken between the ‘response arrives to the client’ event and ‘the
application system receives the response’ event (t7~t8).
Network latency refers to the
time taken on a network for transmitting request message and response message.
It is a sum of the time taken between ‘a client sends a request’ event and ‘the
web services server receives the request’ event (t2~t3), and the time taken
between ‘the server sends a response’ event and ‘the client receives the
response’ event (t6~t7).
Server latency is a delay
time caused by a server system in the whole processing time for a service
request. It is a sum of the time taken between ‘the server sends the request’
event and ‘web services receives the request’ event (t3~t4), ‘the time taken
for processing the service’ event (t4~t5), and the time taken between ‘the
response is sent by the web services’ event and ‘the server receives the
response’ event (t5~t6).
Three types of latency and response
time can be calculated by the following formulas.
<Figure 3‑1> Response Time and Latency
3.2.2
Maximum Throughput
Maximum throughput refers to
the maximum amount of services that the service provider can process in a given
time period. It is the maximum number of responses which can be processed in a
unit time. The following formula expresses the maximum throughput.
Availability is a measurement
which represents the degree of which web services are available in operational
status. This refers to a ratio of time in which the web services server is up
and running. As the DownTime represents the time when a web services server is
not available to use and UpTime represents the time when the server is
available, Availability refers to ratio of UpTime to measured time. In order to
calculate Availability, it is conveniently rather using DownTime than UpTime
and it can be expressed as the following formula.
Accessibility represents the
probability of which web services platform is accessible while the system is
available. This is a ratio of receiving Ack message from the platform when
requesting services. That is, it is expressed as the ratio of the number of
returned Ack message to the number of request messages in a given time. To increase
accessibility, a system needs to be built in expansible architecture.
Successability is a
probability of returning responses after web services are successfully
processed. In other words, it refers to a ratio of the number of response
messages to the number of request messages after successfully processing
services in a given time. ‘Being successful’ means the case that a response
message defined in WSDL is returned. In this time, it is assumed that a request
message is an error free message.
For executing web services, there should be no semantic and
technical problems in processing a message transmitted between a service
provider and a service consumer. No semantic problem refers to the process when
a receiver understands a message in the exact meaning as the sender intended. A
prerequisite condition for the mutual understanding of semantics in a message,
the name of service, the name and type of parameters, the type of return values
are consistent between a service provider and a service consumer. This
prerequisite condition may be satisfied if the service consumer implemented its
system exactly according to the information of a service description (i.e.
WSDL). But, this requires an agreement between all service parties for using
service contents such as the name of items in e-documents and codes without any
semantic problems. No technical problem refers to the conditions when all
components for messaging including transport, security, reliability, encoding,
and message structure coincide during implementation. Two systems of
communication parties are said to be interoperable when they exchange and use
information as if both could operate appropriately on the same platform. Implementing
the messaging technology adopts related standards for assuring
interoperability. If there is no standard available, one of service associates could
adjust its technical implementation to the other’s or both can agree to match
their implementation specifications bilaterally. However, if a standard exists,
the service associates can achieve interoperability by adjusting their
implementation to the standard specification. Even though a service associate
follows a standard, interoperability problems could arise in the case that an
implementer misunderstands the standard or implements a module with a different
intention. In some cases, the implementer may add new functions not described
in the standard arbitrary. However this difference of a platform or network
device could damage the interoperability between the two parties.
Considering the above cases, we can categorize the problems
of interoperability into 3 groups: ① a system which has been implemented
by not adopting a standard, ② a system which has been implemented
according to a standard, with some functions implemented without regard to the
standard, ③ a system which has been implemented according to standards
properly, but which has a problem of interoperability due to difference of
platform of network. All of these issues must be considered in evaluating
interoperability of a service system
Interoperability quality includes standard adoptability, standard
conformability and relative proofness as shown in <Figure 4-1>. Standard
Adoptability of web services evaluates how many functions of a web service are
implemented by adopting related standards. The function of a web service means
necessary requirements such as user authentication, data encryption, service
delivery, transaction processing, etc. They could also include the original
features of the business such as codes, document formats, business terms etc. Standard
conformability of a web service evaluates whether the standards adopted to
implement the functions of the web service conforms completely and correctively
to the specification of the standards. Relative proofness evaluates whether a
client and a service can communicate successfully on specific platforms.
<Figure 4‑1>
Interoperability of web services
4.2
Sub Quality Factors
In order to guarantee
interoperability of web services, functions of a web service should be
implemented by adopting related standards. Standard Adoptability is measured by
the ratio of functions which are implemented by adopting related standards. Standard adoption function f is defined on the set of
functions X={x1, …., xn} of a web service
S and returns one of binary values, 0 and 1. f is
formulated as follows:
Based on the standard adoption function f, standard
adoptability of web service S is defined as follows:
Assuming that a web service S has n functions, and
only m functions of them are implemented by adopting related standards. Standard
conformability function g is defined by the set of standard adopted
functions Xa={ x1, …., xm}
of web service S and returns one of binary values, 0 and 1. g is
defined as follows:
Based on the standard
conformability function, standard conformability of web service S is defined as
follows:
Relative proofness indicates
that web services are successful in exchanging and using the information
between two special system platforms. In real environments, services based on a
technology platform cannot be fully interoperable with other services on a
different technology platform even if a standard conformability test is passed.
Whether the functions of web services are implemented by standards, vendor
specification or non-standards, relative proofness of service interoperability
is tested and verified in a real service platform that satisfies specific
environments. VPI (Verified Platform Information) represents the basic
information of an opponent’s platform and additional descriptions of the
verification when web services are tested and verified in real service
environments of the opponent’s platform.
·
WS-I Basic Profile 1.1
This is a profile for
interoperability of SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and is administered by WS-I.
URL: http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/BasicProfile-1.1.html
·
WS-I Basic Profile 1.2
This is a profile for
interoperability of SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and is administered by WS-I.
URL: http://ws-i.org/profiles/BasicProfile-2.0-WGD.html
·
WS-I Basic Security Profile Version 1.0
This is a profile for
interoperability of web services security and is administered by WS-I.
URL: http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/BasicSecurityProfile-1.0-2007-03-30.html
·
WS-I Basic Security Profile Version 1.1
This is a profile for
interoperability of web services security and is administered by WS-I.
URL: http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/BasicSecurityProfile-1.1.html
·
WS-I Reliable Secure Profile 1.2
This is a profile for
interoperability of reliable message and secured transmission and is
administered by WS-I. (WS-ReliableMessaging 1.1, WS-SecureConversation 1.3)
URL: http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/ReliableSecureProfile-1.0.html
·
WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile Version 1.2
This is a profile for interoperability
of SOAP Binding and is administered by WS-I.
URL: http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/SimpleSoapBindingProfile-1.0.html
As the applying areas of web services are growing on a wide
scale, the cases that use them in communication between service units (i.e.,
enterprise, department, agency, program, division) are increasing rapidly. Applying
web services in business means that the service unit executing them has to take
responsibility of the execution result.
For applying web services in business, the intention of
service providers and consumers has to be reflected correctly in business
results. A service unit can assure correctness and reliability in the business
context for business processing. In order to achieve this, a web service
platform for business should possess functions of reliable messaging,
transaction processing, and collaborability. These functions could be
optionally used according to the requirement of a service unit. Accordingly, business
processing quality is defined as the capability of a web service platform for
assuring correctness and reliability in business processing.
5.2
Sub Quality Factors
Most networks and their communication channels are not
fairly reliable in real world. They are exposed to unexpected circumstance
variances, internal system errors and inexperienced users. As a result, the
messages for service requests and response could be lost and duplicated and
their sequence confused. These cases would cause serious results in business,
which could give a fatal blow to a service unit.
Messaging reliability refers to the capability for messaging
functionality which ensures the intention of messaging for service units. The
level of messaging reliability depends on the requirement of service units. For
example, a service unit could require a very restrict level of reliability in
which a message is transferred once and only once at any case (i.e. money
transfer). In some cases, a service unit requires at least one message
transferred (i.e. request message for search). The sequence of messages could
be disregarded (i.e. request for an invoice). On the other hand, the sequence
of messages could have major effects to a business (i.e. request for stock
trading).
The level of messaging reliability could be determined by
the agreement of parties participating in a business relationship. The business
parties MUST provide the reliability functions which guarantee the level of
reliability more than the level agreed. The messaging reliability includes 4
basic factors, which can be combined. Certain combinations are of particular
interest due to their widespread application: exactly once and ordered (also
referred to as exactly once ordered).
·
Transmitting at least once (guaranteed delivery)
Every message MUST be transmitted
at least once or an error MUST be raised on at least one endpoint. Some
messages SHOULD be delivered more than once until an Acknowledgement is
received from the receiver. Each message MUST be transmitted at least once,
otherwise both receiver and sender MUST issue an error message. In addition,
the sender MUST keep retransmitting the message until Ack is received from the
receiver.
·
Transmitting at most once (guaranteed duplicate elimination)
Each Message MUST be transmitted
at most once without duplication. Otherwise an error will be raised on at least
one endpoint. The receiver MUST block the duplicated message. Each message MUST
be transmitted at most once. The receiver MUST block the duplicated message.
Each message MUST be transmitted precisely once, otherwise both receiver and
sender MUST issue an error message. In addition, the sender MUST keep
retransmitting the message until Ack is received from the receiver. The
receiver MUST block the duplicated message.
·
Transmitting precisely once (guaranteed delivery and duplicate
elimination)
Each message MUST be transmitted
precisely once, otherwise both receiver and sender MUST issue an error message.
In addition, the sender MUST keep retransmitting the message until an Acknowledgement
is received from the receiver. The receiver MUST block the duplicated message. This
delivery assurance is the logical "and" for the two prior delivery
assurances.
·
Transmitting sequentially(guaranteed delivery order)
Messages in sequence MUST be
transmitted from where they are created to the receivers who the messages are intended
to be orderly delivered to. To do this, the sender MUST sequentially send the
message with message sequence information embedded in the messages. And the
receiver would have to be able to rearrange the messages according to sequence
information embedded in the messages.
5.2.2
Transaction Integrity
Transactions running across multiple services over multiple
domains need to maintain business integrity. Traditionally, a transaction is a
business processing unit (a unit of work) that involves one or more services
and is either completed in this entirety or is not done at all.
Transaction integrity refers to whether a service has
functionality for processing transactions or a transaction integrity platform
environment can be applied. The transaction model of web services can be
divided into either a short-term transaction (atomic transaction) or a long-term
transaction (business activity).
§
Short-term transaction (atomic transaction, all-or-nothing
property)
Short-term transaction is a
transaction which requires a service locked for a short period of time such as
purchasing a book online. The major function of the transaction is to reset to
default when a request of the transaction is not processed or a request of a
transaction is processed so that all the changes resulting from the transaction
are applied. This transaction is also called an Atomic transaction and MUST
satisfy the following 4 ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and
Durability) requisites.
·
Atomicity
The transaction completes
successfully (commits) or if it fails (aborts), all of its effects are undone
(roll-back)
·
Consistency
Transactions produce consistent
results and preserve application specific invariants
·
Isolation
The results of a task are not
shared with other transactions unless it is successfully completed.
·
Durability
Once a transaction is
successfully completed, its results SHOULD be permanently applied to a system.
§
Long-term transaction (long-running transaction)
Long-term transaction refers to a
transaction which requires a longer processing time or its resources cannot be
locked exclusively during processing. It is also referred to business activity.
Because a long-term transaction consists of some short-term transactions or
independent web services, Commit or Roll-back mechanisms of short-term transactions
cannot be used. Therefore, long-term transaction quality is evaluated by the
following criteria, not by ACID attributes.
·
Consistency
Long-term transaction SHOULD be
able to change consistently the status of participating systems.
·
Compensatory
Long-term transaction
MUST support an independent and alternative flow to compensate for failed
transactions. Because long-term transactions consist of some short-term
transactions or independent web services, an alternative flow of processing is
needed without individual processes being reset to default.
5.2.3 Collaborability
The application of web service collaboration is prevalent to
implement business processes. A business process can be defined as the
execution of activities according to a defined set of rules in order to achieve
a common goal between participants. Collaborability is the capability of a service
platform to define, control and manage service flow between participants. There
are two types of collaborability: orchestration which is executed or
coordinated by single conductor and choreography which is executed or
coordinated by multiple participants.
·
Orchestration
Orchestration is a technique used to compose hierarchical and
self-contained service-oriented business processes that are executed and
coordinated by a single agent acting in a "conductor" role [OASIS,
Reference Architecture for Service Oriented Architecture]. In other words,
orchestration is the technique to define and execute a flow or procedure of
services to achieve business processing. An orchestration is typically
implemented using a scripting approach to compose service-oriented business
processes. This typically involves use of a standards-based orchestration
scripting language. An example of such a language is the Web Services Business
Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) [WS-BPEL].
·
Choreography
Choreography is a technique used
to characterize and to compose service-oriented business collaborations based
on ordered message exchanges between participants in order to achieve a common
business goal. [OASIS, Reference Architecture for Service Oriented
Architecture] In other words, choreography defines the sequence and
dependencies of interactions between multiple participants to implement a
business process composing multiple web services. Choreography differs from
orchestration primarily in that each party in a business collaboration
describes its part in the service interaction in terms of public message
exchanges that occur between the multiple parties as standard atomic or
composite services, rather than as specific service-oriented business processes
that a single conductor/coordinator (e.g., orchestration engine) executes
[OASIS, Reference Architecture for Service Oriented Architecture]. To be
specific, choreography describes the sequence of interactions for web service
messages. WSDL describes the static interface and choreography defines the
dynamic behavior external interface. It is the Peer-to-Peer collaboration model
of exchanging messages among related partners as a part of a bigger business
transaction with many participants.
5.3 Relationship to other Standards
·
WS-Reliability 1.1
WS-Reliability is a SOAP-based
protocol for exchanging SOAP messages with guaranteed delivery, no duplicates,
and guaranteed message ordering.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsrm/ws-reliability/v1.1/wsrm-ws_reliability-1.1-spec-os.pdf
·
WS-ReliableMessaging 1.2
WS-Reliable Messaging is a
protocol that allows messages to be transferred reliably between nodes
implementing this protocol in the presence of software component, system, or
network failures.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-rx/wsrm/200702/wsrm-1.2-spec-os.html
·
WS-Context 1.0
WS-Context provides a definition,
structuring mechanism, and service definitions for organizing and sharing
context across multiple execution endpoints
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-caf/ws-context/v1.0/wsctx.html
·
WS-Coordination 1.2
WS-Coordination specifies an
extensible framework for providing protocols that coordinate the actions of
distributed applications.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-tx/wstx-wscoor-1.2-spec.html
·
WS-AtomicTransaction 1.2
WS-AtomicTransaction specifies
the definition of the Atomic Transaction coordination type that is to be used
with the extensible coordination framework described in WS-Coordination.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-tx/wstx-wsat-1.2-spec-os/wstx-wsat-1.2-spec-os.html
·
WS-BusinessActivity 1.2
WS-BusinessActivity specifies the
definition of two Business Activity coordination types: AtomicOutcome or
MixedOutcome, that are to be used with the extensible coordination framework
described in the WS-Coordination specification.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-tx/wstx-wsba-1.2-spec-os/wstx-wsba-1.2-spec-os.html
·
WSBPEL 2.0
WSBPEL describes a business
process activity using web services and defines the way they are linked with
each other. Using Orchestration, business process collaboration is composed.
WS-BPEL 2.0 is approved as OASIS standard.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsbpel/2.0/OS/wsbpel-v2.0-OS.html
·
WS-CDL 1.0
Web Services Choreography
Description Language is a language to describe XML based web services
collaboration as choreography. It is a standard for the decentralized business
process.
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/CR-ws-cdl-10-20051109/
The more web services gain weight in business, the more the
web service management scheme is needed for maintaining web service quality.
Web service can be managed not only locally by a web service manager or
provider, but also remotely by a consumer and a third party system. Web service
management may be a prerequisite for the foundation of trust between a service
consumer and a provider.
Manageability is defined as an ability which keeps a web
service and its resources being manageable. At this point, the web service
resource includes the software and hardware components used by the web service
and a platform on which the web service operates. Manageability can be achieved
by implementing manageability capabilities, which are exposed as an access
point, for each web service. A manageability implementation means an
implementation of a manageability endpoint and all of its manageability
capabilities. The manageability capability helps targeting a web service,
provides a function to monitor operational status, and controls operations
along with web service protocol. As the manageability capability enables a
service consumer to use web services with reliability and stability, it may be
an important criterion for one to select a web service. The manageability is classified
into 3 sub-factors: informability, observability and controllability.
6.2
Sub Quality Factors
The management of a web service requires the primitive information
to be settled in the implementation phase in order to cope with troubles and to
support a web service operation. Informability is a sub-quality factor to
measure whether the primitive information can provide enough to manage a web
service. The primitive information for managing a web service is divided into
the manageability access information, assessment of web service management
capability and the web service primitive information.
·
Manageability access information
The manageability capabilities are
exposed as a web service access endpoint thus a manageability consumer SHOULD
get the access point for managing a web service and manageability access
information. There are two ways to achieve this. One is to implement an
additional web service whose functionality is to return a manageability
endpoint for managing a web service. The other is to implement each web service
equipped with an operation which returns its own manageability endpoint. The
former has a disadvantage that a consumer has to know previously the reference
of a web service which informs the access point of manageability capabilities.
In the latter, a web service developer is burdened to implement an additional
operation to inform the manageability endpoint. By utilizing both, a manageability
consumer SHOULD get the manageability endpoint precisely through simple web
service interface.
·
Web service primitive information
The manageability capability can
provide primitive information of a web service to be managed. The primitive
information includes web service properties (e.g. protocol version number,
encryption algorithm, messaging pattern, etc), description of web services and
their resources, characteristics of a manageability implementation, relation
information between web services and resource. The manageability endpoint SHOULD
also have an identity capability to discriminate whether two web services are
the same by referring to their identity information.
Observability measures how effectively a manageability implementation
can provide status information of a web service. The status of a web service
system can be revealed by gathering the values of performance metrics.
Therefore, observability can be evaluated by how effectively the metrics are
taken when gathering information. The effectiveness of gathering metrics is
represented in three aspects:
·
How much are metrics provided?
·
How exactly metrics are provided?
·
Are the metrics provided in real-time?
A manageability consumer can get the status information by
two methods: monitoring and notification. In the former, he can request the
information anytime to a manageability endpoint actively, then a corresponding manageability
capability returns a metric value based on monitoring results. In the latter, a
manageability consumer subscribes previously significant events or issues to be
notified. Then, when a subscribed event or trouble occurs, he will be notified.
The target information to be observed includes all the operational status
information such as performance metrics, a utilization ratio of memory, and a
history of messages.
There may be a case that a web service and its resources
have to be regulated for keeping a stable status or coping with performance
degradation. For example, a manageability consumer may increase the size of a web
service message queue when there are too many messages received at the same
time. If there is an error found in the messaging process, a web service
platform SHOULD be stopped to cope with the problem. Thus, Controllability measures
whether a manageability implementation can provide enough control functions to
keep a web service in controllable status. The control functions are classified
into operation control functions and configuration control functions.
·
Operation control functions
These are to change an
operational status of a web service by executing commands such as start, stop,
fork, and exit to the web service or related resources.
·
Configuration control functions
These are to modify the value of
configuration parameters. For example, according to the change of a
circumstance, a manageability consumer wants to adjust the value of a web
service configuration such as a queue size, an encoding method and an
encryption algorithm.
For measuring controllability,
the scope, stability, voluntary, and easiness of control functions in a
manageability implementation MUST be evaluated.
6.3
Relationship to other Standards
·
W3C Web Services Architecture
It defines the structure of web
services including the state model of web services and the structure for
management. The standardization was completed in January, 2004. It consists of
Web Services Architecture for defining web services structure, Web Services
Usage Scenarios, and Web Services Management: Services Life Cycle for defining
the state model of web services.
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/
·
OASIS Web Services Notification (WSN) v1.3
WSN is the OASIS standard to
define the mechanism of asynchronous message exchange using an event. It was
completed in October, 2006. It consists of WS-BaseNotification to define the
message exchange mechanism of basic event method, WS-BrokeredNotification to
define the asynchronous message exchange mechanism using the broker like MOM
and WS-Topics for exchanging the event information.
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/#wsnv1.3
·
OASIS Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF) v1.2
WSRF proposes
the common framework for managing various resources that exist on networks. It
was completed on April, 2006. It consists of WS-Resource to define resources,
WS-ResourceProperties to define exchange method of the resources,
WS-ResourceLifetime to define lifecycle of the resources, WS-ServiceGroup for
define the way for managing the numerous resources as a group and WS-BaseFaults
to define basic malfunctions that can occur during the attributes management
process. Although WS-Resource Metadata Descriptor is not approved as a
standard, it is very important for managing web services and is being used in
TC such as WSDM.
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/#wsrfv1.2
·
OASIS Web Services Distributes Management (WSDM) v1.1
WSDM proposes the framework for
managing various resources on networks. It consists of MUWS (Management Using
Web Services) and MOWS (Management of Web Services).
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/#wsdmv1.1
Security quality is the degree of ability that can protect web
services from various threats on confidentiality, integrity and availability.
Typical threats on web services environment are unauthorized access, exposure,
forgery and destruction of web services. These security threats can destroy web
services environment by identity theft, forgery of financial data and blockage
of services. Therefore, security quality is becoming significantly critical and
essential for web service.
This security quality should be considered on two technical
perspectives.
·
Transport Level Security
Transport level security is to
provide a secure data transfer on the transport layer. This is regardless of
the characteristics and complexities of web services because its implementation
is based on transport layer protocols and web services are applied on the
application layer. Because security on the parts of a message is not supported,
it has a limitation that the security cannot be guaranteed during intermediary
processing.
·
Message Level Security
Message level security is a
method which provides security service using XML based message to provide confidentiality
and integrity of SOAP messages. Message level security uses End-To-End model,
thus it provides persistent security.
The sub quality factors of the security quality include encryption,
authentication, authorization, integrity, availability, audit, non-repudiation and
privacy. Each quality factor is related to confidentiality, Integrity and
availability.
7.2
Sub Quality Factor
Encryption is data protection and disposure control on web
services with cryptographic functionality to prevent unauthorized user access
of confidential or sensitive information. Frequently ‘encryption’ is regarded
as ‘confidentiality’ in a narrow sense.
·
Transport Level Encryption
Transport level encryption
supports only the encryption of the entire message, using the cryptographic
features provided by SSL, TLS or IPSec protocol. It ensures confidentiality of
data when sending and receiving the data on the transport layer. However, if it
has any intermediary processing, the data should be decrypted and revealed to
the intermediator.
·
Message Level Encryption
To ensure confidentiality of web
services’ message, message level encryption is provided by either the
XML-Encryption or the cryptographic functionality (e.g. PGP for the attachment)
in the WS-Security. Especially, the XML-Encryption can encrypt the part of the
message with the WS-SecurityPolicy along with message protection policy, thus confidentiality
of the service on transport level can be improved.
Firstly, the encryption quality can be measured by whether
the encryption feature is applied or not. If the encryption feature is applied,
the strength of the encryption function (e.g. AES-128-CBC is a stronger
encryption algorism than 3DES-CBC.), the size of encryption key, or the life
cycle of key will affect the encryption quality.
Authentication is the identification of services’ consumer/
provider and the verification of the credential that can be assured by the
identification and trusted for the transmission.
·
Transport Level Authentication
Transport level authentication is
the same method as traditional web environment. Normally the authentication
method is ID/Password, X.509 based certificate, Kerberos and so on. And transport
level authentication is an authentication under point-to-point model. Thus, if
it has no intermediary processing, it can be trusted and provide many vendors
with good interoperability. But, if intermediary processing exists, the
consumer’s credential cannot be trusted and the provider cannot know who the
first origin is, because the identification is propagated and changed.
·
Message Level Authentication
Message level authentication is
an XML message based authentication using standard of W3C such as WS-Security.
Message level authentication method is sometimes similar to transport level
authentication. It can use ID/Password, X.509 based certificate token, or Kerberos
token just inserted in XML. And for more secure requirements and standard based
interoperability, a more special authentication method is used with XML token
such as SAML, WS-Federation, Liberty, and so on. But, because the interconversion
is not supported among XML tokens, the provider must consider STS (Security
Token Service) in WS-Trust specification under the mixed XML token environment.
The authentication quality can be measured by whether the
authentication feature is applied or not. And it can be the strength of the
implementation of authentication method such as password policy, multi-factor
authentication or the possibility of bypass in an authentication mechanism.
Authorization is the control over access on service/message
for each actor’s right. It is used to support Confidentiality and Integrity. It
uses various policies, access control models and security levels as means of
support of Authorization.
·
Transport Level Authorization
Transport level authorization refers
to the access control on the resources of users of the transport channel. It is
implemented on application, middleware – web application server, directory, or
security device using various security models such as RBAC (Rule based access
control) and so on. In this case, the Transport level authorization has the
same limitation as the point-to-point model. In essence the transport level
authorization is decentralized control. Thus, Origin authorization policy
cannot persist under transport level authorization with intermediary
processing.
·
Message Level Authorization
Message level authorization is
the XML messaged based authorization using standard of W3C such as WS-Security.
It is represented with XACML as service authorization policy and
WS-SecurityPolicy as message protected policy. Moreover, it can be encapsulated
with the access right defined as XACML or SAML to carry XACML. Using this
function, the access right over the actual resources is controlled.
The authorization quality can be measured by whether the
authorization feature is applied or not. It can be the possible bypass in an
authorization mechanism.
Integrity is to protect from unauthorized service/message
modify, delete and create. It uses access control and briefing
message.
·
Transport Level Data Integrity
Transport level data integrity
refers to a feature such as the packet comparison and message digest provided
by IPSEC or TLS to provide the data integrity when sending and receiving data
between transport channels.
·
Message Level Data Integrity
Message level data integrity
refers to the data integrity of SOAP message level. It can be guaranteed by
XML-Signature in WS-Security. Also, XKMS to manage the digital signature for
the data integrity can be used.
The Integrity quality can be measured by whether the
integrity feature is applied or not.
Non-repudiation is to prevent receivers and senders from
denying that they send and receive messages. It uses digital-signature for
non-repudiation.
·
Transport Level Non-Repudiation
Under the transport layer,
non-repudiation cannot be built using digital-signature. Usually it is included
in application or business logic. Hence, we do not mention non-repudiation of
transport level here.
·
Message Level Non-Repudiation
Message level non-repudiation-
can be built using XML-Signature in WS-Security. XKMS is used to manage the
digital signature for non-repudiation on the transport level. The
non-repudiation quality of the message level can be measured by whether the
non-repudiation feature is applied or not.
Availability is to allow only authorized consumers to access
services whenever they need. The techniques such as IDS, IPS or Anti-DoS(Denial
of Services) can be implemented to ensure availability.
·
Transport Level Availability
Transport level availability refers
to service continuity on the transport layer to prevent exhausting web
resources by excessive or malicious requests which can make services
unavailable. It is established by surveilling the packets with IDS, IPS or
Anti-DoS equipment on the transport layer.
·
Message Level Availability
Message level availability refers
to service continuity on the message level to protect malicious XML messages
which can make services unavailable. It is accomplished by filtering and
verifying messages on the application level or XML firewall.
The availability quality can be measured by whether the
availability feature is applied or not.
Audit is the capability to trace and verify activities and
events on web services providing and consuming. During the security audit
process, security vulnerability or security attack can be identified from the
traced information.
·
Transport Level Audit
Transport level audit is to trace
and verify send/receive information on transport layer.
·
Message Level Audit
Message level audit is to trace
and verify request/response message on the application layer.
The audit quality can be measured by whether the audit
feature is applied or not.
Privacy is the protection of sensitive information of web
services consumers and providers. To support privacy, it is necessary to
guarantee above, the sub quality factors of security quality. Additionally
privacy policy is required in compliance with law and regulations related with
privacy.
The privacy quality can be measured by whether the
protection of privacy information is implemented and the privacy policy is
defined appropriately.
·
W3C XML Signature
XML digital signature standard
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/
·
W3C XML Encryption
XML encryption standard
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlenc-core/
·
W3C XKMS (XML Key Management Specification)
Key management service standard
which makes the integration between PKI and XML application easy
URL: http://www.w3.org/2001/XKMS/
·
OASIS WS-Security (Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security)
The standard to provide the
authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, and confidentiality of SOAP
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/16790/wss-v1.1-spec-os-SOAPMessageSecurity.pdf
·
MS, VeriSign, IBM WS-SecurityPolicy (Web Services Policy)
The standard to provide the
security policy applied on WS-Security.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-securitypolicy/200702/ws-securitypolicy-1.2-spec-os.html
·
OASIS SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)
The standard to reliably exchange
the authentication and approval information based on XML
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/3406/oasis-sstc-saml-core-1.1.pdf
·
OASIS XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language)
The access control standard that
consists of XML based policy language and access control decision,
request/response language
URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/2406/oasis-xacml-1.0.pdf
·
MS, VeriSign, BEA, IBM WS-Trust (Web Services Trust Language)
The standard about issuing and
exchange the security token and configuring trust relationship in various trust
domains
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-trust/v1.4/os/ws-trust-1.4-spec-os.html
·
MS, VeriSign, BEA, IBM WS-Federation (Web Services Federation
Language)
The mechanism definition to
intervene user identification, attributes, and authentication among web
services applications what belong to different security domains.
URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsfed/federation/v1.2/os/ws-federation-1.2-spec-os.html
A product, document or service conforms to this
specification if it adopts or provides all the quality factors and sub quality
factors in this specification. If there are some quality factors or sub quality
factors with no value or not adopted in a product, then they should be supplied
with no value or the value indicating “not applicable” such as N/A.
The name and meaning of each quality factor or sub quality
factor should not be changed. It is possible to include additional quality
factors or sub quality factors which are not given in this specification. For
the adopted or provided quality factors, a product, document or service should
satisfy all of the MUST or REQUIRED level requirements defined in the part of
the quality factors in this specification.
