Web Service Composition as a Composition of Valid and Robust Semantic Links

Automated composition of Web services or the process of forming new value added Web services is one of the most promising challenges facing the Semantic Web today. Semantics enables Web service to describe capabilities together with their processes, hence one of the key elements for the automated composition of Web services. In this paper we focus on the functional level of Web services i.e., services are described according to some input, output parameters semantically enhanced by concepts in a domain ontology. Web service composition is then viewed as a composition of semantic links wherein the latter links refer to semantic matchmaking between Web service parameters (i.e., outputs and inputs) in order to model their connection and interaction. The key idea is that the matchmaking enables, at run time, finding semantic compatibilities among independently defined Web service descriptions. By considering such a level of composition a formal model to perform the automated composition of Web services i.e., Semantic Link Matrix is introduced. The latter model is required as a starting point to apply problem-solving techniques such as regression (or progression)-based search for Web service composition. The model supports a semantic context in order to find correct, complete, consistent and robust plans as solutions. In this paper an innovative and formal model for an AI (Artificial Intelligence) planning-oriented composition is presented. Our system is implemented and interacting with Web services dedicated on Telecom scenarios. The preliminary evaluation results showed high efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.