Agent-Based Service-Oriented Computing

Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) allows software development time to be shortened by the composition of existing services across the Internet. Further exploitation of this revolutionary trend is feasible through automation, thanks to the use of software agents and techniques from distributed artificial intelligence.

This book provides an overview of the related technologies and insight into state-of-the art research results in the field. The topics discussed cover the various stages in the life cycle of service-oriented software development using agent technologies to automate the development process and to manage services in a dynamic environment. The book presents both academic research results and the latest developments from industry.

Researchers from academia and industry, as well as postgraduates, will find this cutting-edge volume indispensable in order to gain understanding of the issues associated with agent-based service-oriented computing along with recent, and likely future technology trends.

Distributed software systems are becoming evermore prevalent, and we increasingly desire them to operate in heterogeneous, dynamic, and open environments. Service-oriented computing (SOC) has emerged over recent years as a successful approach for building and maintaining such systems. However, as the environments in which we require systems to operate become more complex, we require software components to have increasing degrees of flexibility, autonomy, and intelligence. Agent-based systems naturally complement SOC by offering the intelligence and reasoning capabilities that are needed.

The integration of agents and SOC is a broad and active research area. This book is a collection of chapters from experts in the field, that gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in the main areas of current research, and identifies likely future directions. Researchers, students and practitioners will find this book a useful insight into the current state-of-the-art. The book also includes a general introduction the basic notions of SOC for readers who are unfamiliar with the approach.