To support wireless-oriented services, a new generation of Web services called Mobile services (M-services) has emerged. M-services provide mobile users access to services through wireless networks. One of the important issues in M-service environment is how to discover and access M-services efficiently. In this dissertation, we propose time and power efficient access methods for M-services. We focus on methods for accessing broadcast based M-services from multiple wireless channels. We first discuss efficient access methods in data-oriented wireless broadcast systems. We then discuss how to extend current wireless broadcast systems to support simple M-services. We present a novel infrastructure that provides a multi-channel broadcast framework for mobile users to effectively discover and access composite M-services. Multi-channel algorithms are proposed for efficiently accessing composite services. We define a few semantics that have impact on access efficiency in the proposed infrastructure. We discuss semantic access to composite services. Broadcast channel organizations suitable for discovering and accessing composite services are proposed. We also derive analytical models for these channel organizations. To provide practical study for the proposed infrastructure and access methods, a testbed is developed for simulating accessing M-services in a broadcast-based environment. Extensive experiments have been conducted to study the proposed access methods and broadcast channel organizations. The experimental results are presented and discussed. / Ph. D.

This dissertation addresses issues for the efficient access to Web databases and services. We propose a distributed ontology for a meaningful organization of and efficient access to Web databases. Next, we dedicate most of our work on presenting a comprehensive query infrastructure for the emerging concept of Web services. The core of this query infrastructure is to enable the efficient delivery of Web services based on the concept of Quality of Web Service. Treating Web services as first class objects is a fundamental step towards achieving the envisioned Semantic Web. Semantics-aware processing of information requires intensive use of Web services. In our research, we propose a new query model where queries are resolved by combining Web service invocations. To efficiently deploy such scheme, we propose an optimization strategy based on aggregating Quality of Web service (QoWS) of different Web services. QoWS is adjusted through a dynamic rating scheme and multilevel matching. Web service rating provides an assessment of their behavior. The multilevel matching allows a larger solution space by enabling similar and partial answers. / Ph. D.

This paper investigates into the transmission cost of web services related messages which is affected by network latency. Web services enable seamless interaction and integration of e-business applications. Web services contain a collection of operations so as to interact with outside world over the Internet through XML messaging. Though XML effectively describe message related information and is fairly human readable, it badly affects the performance of Web services in terms of transmission cost, processing cost, and so on. This paper aims to minimize network latency of message communication of Web services by employing pre-emptive resume scheduling. Fundamental principle of this approach is the provision of preferential treatment to some messages as compared to others. This approach assigns different priorities to distinct classes of messages given the fact that some messages may tolerate longer delays than others. For instance, shorter messages may be given higher priority than longer messages, or the Web service provider may give higher priority to the messages of paying subscribers.

Visualization plays an important role in epidemic time series analysis and forecasting. Viewing time series data plotted on a graph can help researchers identify anomalies and unexpected trends that could be overlooked if the data were reviewed in tabular form. However,there are challenges in reviewing data sets from multiple data sources (data can be aggregated in different ways and measure different criteria which can make a direct comparison between time series difficult. In the face of an emerging epidemic, the ability to visualize time series from various sources and organizations and to reconcile these datasets based on different criteria could be key in developing accurate forecasts and identifying effective interventions. Many tools have been developed for visualizing temporal data; however, none yet supports all the functionality needed for easy collaborative visualization and analysis of epidemic data. In this thesis, we develop EpiViewer, a time series exploration dashboard where users can upload epidemiological time series data from a variety of sources and compare, organize, and track how data evolves as an epidemic progresses. EpiViewer provides an easy-to-use web interface for visualizing temporal datasets either as line charts or bar charts. The application provides enhanced features for visual analysis, such as hierarchical categorization, zooming, and filtering, to enable detailed inspection and comparison of multiple time series on a single canvas. Finally, EpiViewer provides a built-in statistical Epi-features module to help users interpret the epidemiological curves. / Master of Science / We present EpiViewer, a time series exploration dashboard where users can upload epidemiological time series data from a variety of sources and compare, organize, and track how data evolves as an epidemic progresses. EpiViewer is a single page web application that provides a framework for exploring, comparing, and organizing temporal datasets. It offers a variety of features for convenient filtering and analysis of epicurves based on meta-attribute tagging. EpiViewer also provides a platform for sharing data between groups for better comparison and analysis.

WEb Services constituem uma tecnologia emergente utilizada para disponibilização de serviços na Web. Devido aos complexos processos de negócio existentes, esses serviços são combinados para que operem seguindo um fluxo de trabalho. Esse processo é chamado de composição de Web Services. Como no processo de desenvolvimento de um software tradicional, a atividade de teste é fundamental no processo de desenvolvimento da composição de Web Services. Neste trabalho é proposta uma estratégia de teste para a composição de Web Services, em que especificações de composições são transformadas para um modelo de teste de programas paralelos baseados em passagem de mensagens. É proposto o conceito de grupos de elementos requeridos para melhorar a cobertura dos critérios. Uma ferramenta de apoio à estratégia de teste foi desenvolvida. Alguns estudos experimentais para avaliar a aplicabilidade da estratégia proposta também são apresentados. Além disso, é proposto um método que utiliza redes de Petri para eliminar sincronizações não-executáveis no envio e recebimento de mensagens / WEb Services constitute an emerging technology for deploying services in the Web. Due to the complex business processes, these services are combined to operate, following a workflow. This process is named Web Services Composition. As in the development process of a traditional software, the testing activity is fundamental in the development process of Web Services Composition. This work proposes a test strategy for Web Services Composition, in that composition specifications are transformed into a test model of message-passing parallel programs. The concept of required elements groups is proposed to improve the criteria coverage. A tool that supports the test strategy was developed. Some experimental studies for evaluating the applicability of proposed strategy are also presented. Furthermore, it presents a method that uses Petri Nets to eliminate non-executable synchronizations in the sending and receiving of messages

Neste projeto é proposta uma avaliação e comparação de diretrizes e a adequação de técnicas que permitam não somente a criação de Web services seguros, mas também a validação dos serviços utilizados para determinar se a aplicação possui as características almejadas relacionadas ao desempenho e à segurança. Neste sentido, é primordial analisar as principais especificações de segurança empregadas em Web services no contexto atual, bem como avaliar os algoritmos criptográficos e o comprimento das chaves utilizadas. Os resultados obtidos permitem determinar, com base nos objetivos especificados, qual o impacto dos mecanismos de segurança utilizados no desempenho da aplicação / In this project we propose an evaluation and comparison of guidelines and appropriateness of techniques that allow not only the creation of secure Web services, but also the validation of the services used to determine whether the application has the desired characteristics related to performance and security. In this sense it is crucial to analyze the main security specifications used in Web services in the current context, as well as evaluating the cryptographic algorithms and key length used. The results obtained allow to determine, based on specified objectives, the impact of security mechanisms used in application performance

Dienstorientierte Architekturen (SOA = Service Oriented Architecture) dienen dem Aufbau von lose miteinander verbundenen, verteilten Systemen, deren Komponenten eine minimale gemeinsame Systemsicht haben. Die wichtigsten Bausteine der SOA sind Dienste. Dienste sind selbstbeschreibende, eigenständige, plattform-unabhängige und frei verfügbare Komponenten, die über das Netzwerk interagieren. Das Hauptziel der SOA ist die transparente, flexible und dynamische Interaktion von Diensten und deren Benutzern innerhalb mehrerer zusammenhängender Domänen. Während die nativen Fähigkeiten von dienstorientierten Architekturen, wie Beschreibung, Entdeckung, Kommunikation und Bindung, bereits gut erfasst und standardisiert worden sind, ist das Problem der Dienstkomposition bisher noch nicht zufriedenstellend gelöst worden. Diese Dissertation hinterfragt die Grundvoraussetzung der SOA, die darin besteht, dass lediglich die Grundfunktionsweise von Diensten offen gelegt werden sollte, und demonstriert, dass auf der Grundlage einer semantischen Dienstbeschreibung (einschließlich funktionaler und nichtfunktionaler Eigenschaften) eine praktikable Lösung zur Dienstkomposition entwickelt werden kann (komponierbare Dienstarchitektur). Diese Lösung erfordert 1) erweiterte deskriptive Fähigkeiten und Suchmöglichkeiten durch die Entwicklung einer vertragsbasierten Beschreibungssprache einschließlich nichtfunktionaler Eigenschaften wie Sicherheit, Verlässlichkeit und Rechtzeitigkeit; 2) das Feststellen der Kompositionskorrektheit durch die Modellierung von Diensten als abstrakte Maschinen und die Entwicklung einer formalen Kompositionssprache und 3) automatische Dienstkomposition, indem Suchalgorithmen für die automatisierte und dynamische Selektion von Kompositionspartnern entwickelt werden. Abschließend wird der Prototyp eines Kompositionsservers für Web Services einschließlich Design und Implementierung beschrieben, um die Realisierbarkeit der vorgeschlagenen Architektur aufzuzeigen. / Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is focused on building loosely coupled distributed systems with minimal shared understanding among system components. The main building blocks in SOA are services. Services are self-descriptive, self-contained, platform-independent and openly-available components that interact over the network. The main goal of SOA is transparent, flexible and dynamic interaction of services and their clients over multiple interconnected domains. While native capabilities of service-oriented architectures, such as description, discovery, communication and binding, have been well understood and standardized, the issue of service composition has not yet been satisfactorily solved. This dissertation challenges the SOA postulate that service should disclose only basic functional signature, and demonstrates that based on semantic service description, including functional and non-functional properties, a viable solution for service composition can be developed (composable service architecture), that supports: 1) Extended descriptive and search capabilities by developing contract-based description language including non-functional properties such as security, dependability, timeliness; 2) Verification of composition correctness by modeling services as abstract machines and developing a formal composition language, and 3) Automatic service composition by treating automated and dynamic selection of composition partners as a search problem and developing search algorithms for that purpose. Finally, in order to show the viability of the proposed architectural solution, a prototype of Web Services composition server is described including design and implementation.

The thesis deals with the use of cloud computing to solve computationally intensive task. Simulation methods are employed to analyze the operation of the proposed system before putting it into operation. Cloud computing makes the functionality of modern data centers accessible to small businesses, cloud allows scaling up and scaling down of resource usage on an as-needed basis; moreover, without high initial investments and long-term commitments. The paper examines in detail the ways to adapt the currently most popular cloud environment of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud to the specific requirements of custom applications and suggests ways to automate the process of creation and customization of instance images. The automation and management of running applications in cloud environment is demonstrated on the example of geographic data processing and map generation application. The simulation model for running applications in the cloud is built and exploited to verify the ability of the proposed solutions to succeed in a production deployment.

A crescente utilização de equipamentos inteligentes na área de automação industrial tem assegurado eficiência e qualidade na produção. Em conseqüência deste crescimento, existe uma grande quantidade de equipamentos interligados abrangendo áreas geográficas distantes. Este cenário criou a demanda de sistemas que permitissem o acesso às informações geradas no chão de fábrica a partir de qualquer computador localizado na área industrial ou em qualquer outro ponto do planeta. A Internet propiciou uma nova opção para gerenciamento e monitoramento de equipamentos inteligentes a longa distância. Assim, este trabalho propõe um algoritmo para monitorar, via Internet, os eventos gerados por equipamentos inteligentes instalados em plantas industriais. Com o monitoramento contínuo, é possível analisar o desempenho dos equipamentos, detectar problemas e tomar decisões de forma a garantir que toda uma malha de controle não venha a parar inesperadamente. / The increasing usage of smart field devices in the industrial automation area has assured efficiency and quality of production. Thanks to this expansion, a large number of devices can be interconnected through distant geographical areas. This scenario created the need of computational systems that would make the information from the plant floor accessible to any computer in the local industrial area or any other earth wide location. The Internet has created a new possibility of remote managing and monitoring of smart devices. This work proposes an algorithm to monitor, via Internet, the events generated by smart devices installed in industrial plants. The continuous monitoring makes it possible to analyze the performance of the devices, detect problems and make decisions to ensure that an entire control loop does not come to an unexpected halt.

Among the plethora of solutions to the Business-to-Business interoperability problem, no other solution has obtained as much attention asWeb Services Technology (WST), which allows entities to exchange data regardless of their underlying platforms. WST also allows services to be composed in order to provide high quality customer service over the web. In order to perform transactions across different service providers, standard protocols need to be supported by participating providers. Many useful protocols are coming into the market, but are often ambiguously specified by protocol designers and not fully verified. Furthermore, even if the specifications are reasonably clear, programmers often make subtle assumptions, possibly leading to errors that are hard to detect and locate, especially when the number of participating entities is dynamic. Consequently, these can lead to interoperability problems among implementations of the same protocol and high software maintenance costs. To address these issues, a hierarchical automata-based framework is proposed to model the functional aspects of Web Services (WS) protocols that also assists in verifying their correctness. The modelling formalism has a sound mathematical foundation and aims to reconcile desirable features while still maintaining syntactic and semantic simplicity. The properties to be verified are specified using a pattern system and/or 'observer' states, which have been adapted for WS protocols. In particular, always in a positive observer state implies proper termination and partial functional correctness while reachability of a negative observer state signifies deadlock and/or violation of a safety property. Verification itself is handled by automatic translation of the model and its properties into a model-checker's input code and interpretation of the output produced by the model-checker. A test-bed is proposed to check the conformance of a protocol implementation to its specification It helps in locating errors in the implementations of WS protocols especially where the number of participating entities is dynamic. Conformance checking is achieved by capturing sequences of exchanged messages of the actual implementations and checking them against the formal specification. Experience using the framework is also described and illustrated using two non-trivial WS protocols, namely WS-BusinessActivity and WS-AtomicTransaction.