Automatic Genration of Reliable E-Commerce Payment Processes

The most important phase in E–Commerce interactions is the payment, due to the transfer of sensitive information (e.g., credit card numbers). A couple of requirements exist both from the point of view of a customer and from the merchant’s perspective. This set of requirements is even enlarged when complex interactions are considered in which a customer purchases goods originating from different merchants within one single E–Commerce transaction. In this paper, we show how all these different requirements of payment interactions can be seamlessly integrated in transactional payment processes. These processes are generated automatically based on the customer’s specification of the E–Commerce transaction (involved participants, means of payment, etc.). We present the basic structure of such payment processes, how the requirements are mapped into these processes and how they can be generated automatically. Furthermore, we present the architecture of a payment coordinator that has been implemented within the INVENT project. This payment coordinator controls the execution of transactional payment processes, thereby keeping track of the interactions with the various participants.