The purpose of this project was to explore the use of Web services to solve enterprise computing problems. XML-based Web services allow complex information systems to be subdivided. In order to explore this architectural paradigm, two systems were built: an employee records sytem, and a vacation system.

The purpose of this project is to update the architecture and design of the California State University San Bernardino Graduate Advisor System. This system allows potential students into the Master of Science degree program in Computer Science to complete their application online.

The primary contributions to the area of electronic business integration, propounded by this thesis, are (in no particular order):  A novel examination of global Business-to-Business (B2B) interoperability in terms of a "multiplicity paradox" and of a "global electronic market-space" from a Complex Systems Science perspective.  A framework for an, integrated, global electronic market-space, which is based on a hierarchical, incremental, minimalist-business-pattern approach. A Web Services-SOA forms the basis of application-to-application integration within the framework. The framework is founded in a comprehensive study of existing technologies, standards and models for secure interoperability and the SOA paradigm. The Complex Systems Science concepts of "predictable structure" and "structural complexity" are used consistently throughout the progressive formulation of the framework.  A model for a global message handler (including a standards-based message-format) which obviates the common problems implicit in standard SOAP-RPC. It is formulated around the "standardized, common, abstract application interface" critical success factor, deduced from examining existing models. The model can be used in any collaboration context.  An open standards-based security model for the global message handler. Conceptually, the framework comprises the following:  An interoperable standardized message format: a standardized SOAP-envelope with standardized attachments (8-bit binary MIME-serialized XOP packages).  An interoperable standardized message-delivery infrastructure encompassing an RPC-invoked message-handler - a Web service, operating in synchronous and/or asynchronous mode, which relays attachments to service endpoints.  A business information processing infrastructure comprised of: a standardized generic minimalist-business-pattern (simple buying/selling), comprising global pre-specifications for business processes (for example, placing an order), standardized specific atomic business activities (e.g. completing an order-form), a standardized document-set (including, e.g. an order-form) based on standardized metadata (common nomenclature and common semantics used in XSD's, e.g. the order-form), the standardized corresponding choreography for atomic activities (e.g. acknowledgement of receipt of order-form) and service endpoints (based on standardized programming interfaces and virtual methods with customized implementations). / Theoretical Computing / PHD (INFORMATION SYSTEMS)

Résumé : Les services Web, issus de l’avancée technologique dans le domaine des réseaux informatiques et des dispositifs de télécommunications portables et fixes, occupent une place primordiale dans la vie quotidienne des gens. La demande croissante sur des services Web multimédia (SWM), en particulier, augmente la charge sur les réseaux d’Internet, les fournisseurs de services et les serveurs Web. Cette charge est essentiellement due au fait que les SWM de haute qualité nécessitent des débits de transfert et des tailles de paquets importants. La qualité de service (par définition, telle que vue par l’utilisateur) est influencée par plusieurs facteurs de performance, comme le temps de traitement, le délai de propagation, le temps de réponse, la résolution d’images et l’efficacité de compression. Le travail décrit dans cette thèse est motivé par la demande continuellement croissante de nouveaux SWM et le besoin de maintenir et d’améliorer la qualité de ces services. Nous nous intéressons tout d’abord à la qualité de services (QdS) des SWM lorsqu’ils sont mis en œuvre sur des ordinateurs, tels que les ordinateurs de bureau ou les portables. Nous commençons par étudier les aspects de compatibilité afin d’obtenir des SWM fonctionnant de manière satisfaisante sur différentes plate-formes. Nous étudions ensuite la QdS des SWM lorsqu’ils sont mis en œuvre selon deux approches différentes, soit le protocole SOAP et le style RESTful. Nous étudions plus particulièrement le taux de compression qui est un des facteurs influençant la QdS. Après avoir considéré sous différents angles les SWM avec mise en œuvre sur des ordinateurs, nous nous intéressons à la QdS des SWM lorsqu’ils sont mis en œuvre sur FPGA. Nous effectuons alors une étude et une mise en œuvre qui permet d’identifier les avantages à mettre en œuvre des SWM sur FPGA. Les contributions se définissent en cinq volets comme suit : 1. Nous introduisons des méthodes de création, c’est-à-dire conception et mise en œuvre, de SWM sur des plate-formes logicielles hétérogènes dans différents environnements tels que Windows, OS X et Solaris. Un objectif que nous visons est de proposer une approche permettant d’ajouter de nouveaux SWM tout en garantissant la compatibilité entre les plate-formes, dans le sens où nous identifions les options nous permettant d’offrir un ensemble riche et varié de SWM pouvant fonctionner sur les différentes plate-formes. 2. Nous identifions une liste de paramètres pertinents influençant la QdS des SWM mis en œuvre selon le protocole SOAP et selon le style REST. 3. Nous développons un environnement d’analyse pour quantifier les impacts de chaque paramètre identifié sur la QdS de SWM. Pour cela, nous considérons les SWM mis en œuvre selon le protocole SOAP et aussi selon style REST. Les QdS obtenues avec SOAP et REST sont comparées objectivement. Pour faciliter la comparaison, la même gamme d’images (dans l’analyse de SWM SOAP) a été réutilisée et les mêmes plate-formes logicielles. 4. Nous développons une procédure d’analyse qui permet de déterminer une corrélation entre la dimension d’une image et le taux de compression adéquat. Les résultats obtenus confirment cette contribution propre à cette thèse qui confirme que le taux de compression peut être optimisé lorsque les dimensions de l’image ont la propriété suivante : le rapport entre la longueur et la largeur est égal au nombre d’or connu dans la nature. Trois libraires ont été utilisées à savoir JPEG, JPEG2000 et DjVu. 5. Dans un volet complémentaire aux quatre volets précédents, qui concernent les SWM sur ordinateurs, nous étudions ainsi la conception et la mise en œuvre de SWM sur FPGA. Nous justifions l’option de FPGA en identifiant ses avantages par rapport à deux autres options : ordinateurs et ASICs. Afin de confirmer plusieurs avantages identifiés, un SWM de QdS élevée et de haute performance est créé sur FPGA, en utilisant des outils de conception gratuits, du code ouvert (open-source) et une méthode fondée uniquement sur HDL. Notre approche facilitera l’ajout d’autres modules de gestions et d’orchestration de SWM. 6. La mise à jour et l’adaptation du code open-source et de la documentation du module Ethernet IP Core pour la communication entre le FPGA et le port Ethernet sur la carte Nexys3. Ceci a pour effet de faciliter la mise en œuvre de SWM sur la carte Nexys3. // Abstract : Web services, which are the outcome of the technological advancements in IT networks and hand-held mobile devices for telecommunications, occupy an important role in our daily life. The increasing demand on multimedia Web services (MWS), in particular, augments the load on the Internet, on service providers and Web servers. This load is mainly due to the fact that the high-quality multimedia Web services necessitate high data transfer rates and considerable payload sizes. The quality of service (QoS, by definition as it is perceived by the user) is influenced by several factors, such as processing time, propagation delay, response time, image resolution and compression efficacy. The research work in this thesis is motivated by the persistent demand on new MWS, and the need to maintain and improve the QoS. Firstly, we focus on the QoS of MWS when they are implemented on desktop and laptop computers. We start with studying the compatibility aspects in order to obtain MWS functioning satisfactorily on different platforms. Secondly, we study the QoS for MWS implemented according to the SOAP protocol and the RESTful style. In particular, we study the compression rate, which is one of the pertinent factors influencing the QoS. Thirdly, after the study of MWS when implemented on computers, we proceed with the study of QoS of MWS when implemented on hardware, in particular on FPGAs. We achieved thus comprehensive study and implementations that show and compare the advantages of MWS on FPGAs. The contributions of this thesis can be resumed as follows: 1. We introduce methods of design and implementation of MWS on heterogeneous platforms, such as Windows, OS X and Solaris. One of our objectives is to propose an approach that facilitates the integration of new MWS while assuring the compatibility amongst involved platforms. This means that we identify the options that enable offering a set of rich and various MWS that can run on different platforms. 2. We determine a list of relevant parameters that influence the QoS of MWS. 3. We build an analysis environment that quantifies the impact of each parameter on the QoS of MWS implemented on both SOAP protocol and RESTful style. Both QoS for SOAP and REST are objectively compared. The analysis has been held on a large scale of different images, which produces a realistic point of view describing the behaviour of real MWS. 4. We develop an analysis procedure to determine the correlation between the aspect ratio of an image and its compression ratio. Our results confirm that the compression ratio can be improved and optimised when the aspect ratio of iiiiv an image is close to the golden ratio, which exists in nature. Three libraries of compression schemes have been used, namely: JPEG, JPEG2000 and DjVu. 5. Complementary to the four contributions mentioned above, which concern the MWS on computers, we study also the design and implementation of MWS on FPGA. This is justified by the numerous advantages that are offered by FPGAs, compared to the other technologies such as computers and ASICs. In order to highlight the advantages of implementing MWS on FPGA, we developed on FPGA a MWS of high performance and high level of QoS. To achieve our goal, we utilised freely available design utilities, open-source code and a method based only on HDL. This approach is adequate for future extensions and add-on modules for MWS orchestration.

為了解決代理者程式在開放式網際網路上溝通的問題，我們採用了語意網中本體論的技術。目的是透過可信度等多個本體論的使用，代理者程式可以進行具有語意程度的溝通以完成代理者程式的互信。研究中，我們利用了DAML+OIL這種具有強大的表達能力的語言來描述數位電子憑証及安全相關的字彙，以及代理者程式彼此間的關係以便於檢驗代理者可信度，最後我們藉代理者程式的認証、授權等的溝通協定來達成資訊網服務的資源及可信度的控管機制。 / We use ontology technology from the Semantic Web to solve the agent communication problem. The idea is to build trust and other ontologies for the multi-agent system to ensure semantic level agent communication on agent trust control. In this research, we use a powerful ontology language, i.e. DAML+OIL to explicitly describe a variety of digital certificates and the relationship among agents for agent trust verification. Furthermore, we fulfill the resource and trust control mechanism using agent authentication/authorization communication protocols on the Web Services environment.

由於網際網路的興起，改變了使用者的消費習慣，顧客可以透過網路使用金融服務，也使得越來越多的金融機構投入發展網路銀行，提供顧客一次購足服務(One-Stop-Service/Shopping)、多樣化金融服務通道(Service Channel)及24小時全年無休服務等金融交易方式。但是，使用者對於網路銀行仍有安全上的考慮，擔心網站業者盜用其帳號或駭客入侵等問題。另一方面，由於各家銀行的帳戶資料與其它家銀行不相同，資料標準不一致，以致難以動態整合帳戶，遲遲無法提供整合帳戶的報表。 本研究目的在解決上述問題，透過建立服務導向架構的網路服務平台，整合使用者的資產帳戶。金融機構將網路服務發佈到註冊中心(UDDI)，透過本研究的共通平台針對帳戶欄位名稱合併，由顧客取得實際帳戶明細資料對應成彙整報表。此設計架構能確保帳戶資訊是金融機構直接傳遞給客戶端，無須經過任何第三者之介入，又能解決各家銀行欄位名稱不一致的問題。 歸納本研究成果在於：(1)透過XML和網路服務等相關技術，達成金融機構資訊交換。(2)採用服務導向架構，動態搜尋服務與動態配置帳戶欄位，達到金融跨行帳戶彙整。(3)提供整合性客戶端帳戶整合報表。 / The rising of the Internet has changed user-consuming behaviors, and the customers could use the financial services with the Internet. Therefore, more and more financial institutions develop their banking websites to provide their customers One-Stop-Service/Shopping, Service Channels, and service around the year. Still the customers take the website security into consideration, such as account misappropriation by the website broker, hacker invasion, and so on. Besides, account data of a bank are different from the others, so that it is hard to integrate their account to provide entire aggregate account reports. This thesis applies the Services Oriented Architecture of Web Service and integrates customers’ asset account to resolve the above problems. The financial institutions publish their web services into Universal, Description, Discovery and Integration, and the customers can receive their account financial data to present aggregate account report through the combination of the account attributes name within the common platform. This design framework can ensure that the financial institutions will transfer account financial data to the end clients without other brokers. The contributions of this thesis are (1) the accomplishment of the data exchange in financial institutions through XML, Web Services, etc., (2) the adoption of Services Orient Architecture to dynamically search services and allocate account attributes in order to integrate the cross banking accounts, and (3) the supply of the aggregate accounts for end clients.

軟體服務產業，由於內在條件與外部環境等因素長期以來經營不易，在此經濟前景不明，綠色環保意識抬頭及自由軟體呼聲日益高漲的時代，軟體服務業者是否能以元件化軟體服務，開拓出有別於以往的全新經營模式，是個值得深入研究之方向。 政府機關由於組織性質雷同，服務範圍廣大，應用系統繁多，各系統間常有資料共建共享之需求（如各系統須使用人事資訊系統），也有性質非常相近之服務系統(例如網站資訊服務系統、線上申辦服務系統、行政資訊服務系統或員工入口網)，但對於這些性質雷同之服務系統，是否能經由元件化軟體服務之導入與運用，在保證軟體可靠性、穩定性和系統效能的前提下，如何提高軟體開發效率、縮短開發週期、降低開發成本、提高軟體的可維護性、快速高效地適應需求變化、降低運轉維護成本等，是應用軟體服務廠商競爭力的主要表現，也是導入元件化軟體服務最大的目的。 本研究利用個案分析法，搜集個案內之相關資料進行分析與探討，分別從政府機關組織之特性與提供之服務需求面向，資訊軟體產業面臨之問題等面向進行研究，並運用策略形態分析法的思考程序，進而歸納出元件化軟體服務之解決方案，並就元件化軟體服務的優缺點進行剖析，分析出其整體之成本效益。 期望藉由本研究之結論拋磚引玉，激發起政府機關相關決策長官及資訊軟體服務業者的思維，如何從國家整體產業進步觀點去思考與規劃，快速穩健地導入真正符合民眾期望之資訊服務系統，又能樽節成本，避免不必要之資源重複投入，如此方能促進國家與資訊軟體服務產業之雙贏局面。 關鍵字：元件化軟體、SOA、Web service、軟體服務、經營模式 / The IT software services industry is facing difficult long-term operating conditions due to internal factors and an external environment beset by economic uncertainty and instability, greater awareness of environmental concerns, and a sharp rise in the growth of independently-developed software. Whether or not the software services industry can use service oriented architecture (SOA) software componentization to create an entirely new business model, is a valuable topic that merits in-depth research. Government institutions, like other organizations, are offering an increasing amount of services and use multiple software applications. These applications usually require shared database and common interface capabilities (e.g. various entities require access to a centralized personnel information system) and similar service structures such as web services, e-application services, online administrative information service systems, and employee portal access. Software componentization is a potential solution for applications requiring well-defined interfaces. With system reliability and stability as prerequisites, the main goals of application service providers and componentization software services developers are the same: to increase software efficiency, shorten development cycles & reduce costs, improve software maintainability, be highly responsive to changes, and flexible and lower maintenance turnaround costs. This research applies case study methodology to collect and group relevant information for analysis and discussion. Topics to be discussed include: software-specific needs of government institutions, issues faced by software developers, the application of strategic posture analysis to compose a set of componentization software services solutions, examination of its advantages and disadvantages, and an overall breakdown of its cost effectiveness. Research conclusions are expected to stimulate further research in future studies and encourage decision-makers in government and the software services industry to consider how the industry can progress to a point where it is stable enough to fulfill the expectations of the public, control costs, and avoid unnecessary resource overlaps, thus promoting a win-win situation for government and the IT software services industry. Keywords: componentized software, SOA, web services, software services, business model

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Modern technology is making virtual environments a part of daily life. However, some constraints about the usage of virtual environments, such as the need for high performance and well-configured computers, prevent users from accessing virtual environments in some places other than special computer rooms. Mobile devices may be used to solve this limitation in a virtual environment. The remote-control approach to access virtual worlds on the Internet or on a corporate network is a new concept that opens new doors to users. First step of this approach is already in use, such as games implemented for mobile devices using the screen of a mobile device as display, and has given satisfying results for some users. This research will take the user, who not only wants to be mobile but also does not want to sacrifice high resolution textures and complex models, closer to his/her goal. Mobile devices provide mobility to the user, but sacrifice not only the reality of the virtual environments but also screen size, which is very important for visibility of complex virtual environments. The hybrid approach with wireless internet connection by using mobile devices as remote control gives the user the advantages of mobility over desktop PCs. On the other hand, the realism provided by high-quality PCs on the server side exceeds the capabilities of mobile devices. / Lieutenant Junior Grade, Turkish Navy

Feature extraction is an extremely important pre-processing step to pattern recognition, and machine learning problems. This thesis highlights how one can best extract features from the data in an exhaustively online and purely adaptive manner. The solution to this problem is given for both labeled and unlabeled datasets, by presenting a number of novel on-line learning approaches. Specifically, the differential equation method for solving the generalized eigenvalue problem is used to derive a number of novel machine learning and feature extraction algorithms. The incremental eigen-solution method is used to derive a novel incremental extension of linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Further the proposed incremental version is combined with extreme learning machine (ELM) in which the ELM is used as a preprocessor before learning. In this first key contribution, the dynamic random expansion characteristic of ELM is combined with the proposed incremental LDA technique, and shown to offer a significant improvement in maximizing the discrimination between points in two different classes, while minimizing the distance within each class, in comparison with other standard state-of-the-art incremental and batch techniques. In the second contribution, the differential equation method for solving the generalized eigenvalue problem is used to derive a novel state-of-the-art purely incremental version of slow feature analysis (SLA) algorithm, termed the generalized eigenvalue based slow feature analysis (GENEIGSFA) technique. Further the time series expansion of echo state network (ESN) and radial basis functions (EBF) are used as a pre-processor before learning. In addition, the higher order derivatives are used as a smoothing constraint in the output signal. Finally, an online extension of the generalized eigenvalue problem, derived from James Stone’s criterion, is tested, evaluated and compared with the standard batch version of the slow feature analysis technique, to demonstrate its comparative effectiveness. In the third contribution, light-weight extensions of the statistical technique known as canonical correlation analysis (CCA) for both twinned and multiple data streams, are derived by using the same existing method of solving the generalized eigenvalue problem. Further the proposed method is enhanced by maximizing the covariance between data streams while simultaneously maximizing the rate of change of variances within each data stream. A recurrent set of connections used by ESN are used as a pre-processor between the inputs and the canonical projections in order to capture shared temporal information in two or more data streams. A solution to the problem of identifying a low dimensional manifold on a high dimensional dataspace is then presented in an incremental and adaptive manner. Finally, an online locally optimized extension of Laplacian Eigenmaps is derived termed the generalized incremental laplacian eigenmaps technique (GENILE). Apart from exploiting the benefit of the incremental nature of the proposed manifold based dimensionality reduction technique, most of the time the projections produced by this method are shown to produce a better classification accuracy in comparison with standard batch versions of these techniques - on both artificial and real datasets.

Industry white papers are increasingly being used to explain the philosophy and operation of a product in marketplace or technology context. This explanation is used by senior managers for strategic planning in an organization. This research explores the effectiveness of white papers and strategies for managers to learn about technologies using white papers. The research is conducted by collecting industry white papers in the area of Information System Integration and gleaned relevant information through text-mining tool, Vantage Point. The text mined information is analyzed to provide solutions for practical problems in systems integration market. The indirect findings of the research are New System Integration Business Models, Methods for Calculating ROI of System Integration Project, and Managing Implementation Failures.