A Coordination Model for Distributed Transactions in Digital Business EcoSystems

Abstract

In this paper we present a model for coordinating distributed long running and multi-service transactions in Digital Business EcoSystems. The model supports various forms of service composition, which are translated into a tuples-based behavioural description that allows to reason about the required behaviour in terms of ordering, dependencies and alternative execution. The compensation mechanism warranties consistency, including omitted results, without breaking local autonomy. The proposed model is considered at the deployment level of SOA, rather than the realisation level, and is targeted to business transactions between collaborating SMEs as it respects the loose-coupling of the underlying services.

Beyond interoperability to digital ecosystems: regional innovation and socio-economic development led by SMEs

“…These interactions require partners to behave to some extent in a coordinated way-partners must follow an agreed protocol to execute transactions (Razavi et al, 2007a). A B2B transaction between SMEs in a digital ecosystem may involve simple usage of a web service or composition of several services from various service providers.…”

A scale-free business network for digital ecosystems

“…At the same time, the telecoms industry is moving towards the Next Generation Networks (NGNs), and this comes with yet another view of services and applications; the so-called Next Generation Services (NGSs) [2]. Our approach is trying to leverage these developments in creating a business environment which supports dynamic contexts for distributed long-lived transactions in open communities of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), proposed in [3], [4].…”

“…As a result, keeping the necessary information for coordinating long-lived transactions [3] can be rather challenging, but also the probability of fragmentation in the network cannot be averted. This can have severe consequences in a business environment, since fragmentation in the network directly affects the number of failed transactions [1].…”

Stability and complexity in digital ecosystems

“…We can already draw some provisional conclusions that are informing our own work and that of other partners in the OPAALS Network of Excellence [20,21]. We have seen that a key impactor on resilience of an ecosystem is the ability of the species that interact in that system to be able to maintain key functions as conditions vary [19].…”

“…Even where there is a natural hub for the business activities, this can provide a threat to the local autonomy of the participating SMEs -the web service coordinator will have access to business state, business logic and data about traffic that can help in enforcing a level of governance on the participating SMEs, and also inform acquisition policies of the coordinator. A distributed coordination model for longrunning business transactions that aims to alleviate such concerns has been proposed in [17,20].…”