WS-Net: A Petri-net based specification model for web services

The emerging paradigm of web services opens a new way of web application design and development to quickly develop and deploy web applications by integrating independently published web services components to conduct new business transactions. As research aiming at facilitating web services integration and verification, WS-Net is an executable architectural description language incorporating the semantics of Colored Petri-net with the style and understandability of object-oriented concepts. WS-Net describes each web services component in three layers: interface net declares the services that the component provides to other components; interconnection net specifies the services that the component acquires to accomplish its mission; and interoperation net describes the internal operational behaviors of the component. As an architectural model that formalizes the architectural topology and behaviors of each web services component as well as the entire system, WS-Net facilitates the verification and monitoring of web services integration.