Evaluating the second generation web services specifications for satisfying non-functional requirements

Abstract

Web services have enjoyed rapid acceptance in recent years. One of the motivating factors for this is the reliance on open standards for loose coupling and platform independent interface definition. Besides satisfying the functional requirements of an application, a web service also has to cater for the equally important non-functional requirements (NFRs) such as availability and reliability. Though Web services specifications such as WSDL, SOAP and UDDI have been around for quite some time, they however, lack the ability to adequately provide for the NFRs associated with a specification. Second-generation Web services specifications have emerged in an attempt to alleviate these and other short-comings. This paper evaluates these second generation Web services specifications to determine its ability to cater for the NFRs which can then be used to identify the areas that need further attention with respect to creating specifications, stimulating discussion around non-functional properties of Web services, and encouraging formal treatments to those specifications.