Formal semantics and analysis of control flow in WS-BPEL

Ouyang, Chun and Verbeek, Eric and van der Aalst, Wil M.P. and Breutel, Stephan and Dumas, Marlon and ter Hofstede, Arthur H.M. (2007) Formal semantics and analysis of control flow in WS-BPEL. Science of Computer Programming, 67(2/3). pp. 162-198.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2007.03.002

Abstract

Web service composition refers to the creation of new (Web) services by combining functionalities provided by existing ones. A number of domain-specific languages for service composition have been proposed, with consensus being formed around a process-oriented language known as WS-BPEL (or BPEL). The kernel of BPEL consists of simple communication primitives that may be combined using control-flow constructs expressing sequence, branching, parallelism, synchronization, etc. We present a comprehensive and rigorously defined mapping of BPEL constructs onto Petri net structures, and use this for the analysis of various dynamic properties related to unreachable activities, conflicting messages, garbage collection, conformance checking, and deadlocks and lifelocks in interaction processes. We use a mapping onto Petri nets because this allows us to use existing theoretical results and analysis tools. Unlike approaches based on finite state machines, we do not need to construct the state space, and can use structural analysis (e.g., transition invariants) instead. We have implemented a tool that translates BPEL processes into Petri nets and then applies Petri-net-based analysis techniques. This tool has been tested on different examples, and has been used to answer a variety of questions.

ID Code:	14809
Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	Business process modeling, Web services, BPEL, Tool, based verification, Petri nets
ISSN:	0167-6423
Subjects:	Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > INFORMATION SYSTEMS (080600) > Information Systems Development Methodologies (080608)
Divisions:	QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Science and Technology
Copyright Owner:	Copyright 2007 Elsevier
Copyright Statement:	Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.
Deposited On:	12 Sep 2008
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2009 04:59

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Formal Semantics and Analysis of Control Flow in WS-BPEL (Revised Version). (deposited 19 Jul 2006)
- Formal semantics and analysis of control flow in WS-BPEL. (deposited 12 Sep 2008) [Currently Displayed]

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