| Intelligent Distributed Computing Department |
| Distributed Systems Technology Group Papers |
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Federation as a Service
Citation: Gail Mitchell, Joseph Loyall, Jonathan Webb. Federation as a Service. Submitted to the 4th Middleware for Service-Oriented Computing (MW4SOC) Workshop, 2009.
Formats:
Paper (PDF)
Abstract:
Federation of information systems is a critical capability for service-oriented computing systems that support information distributed across heterogeneous domains. Although service-oriented architectures provide data services that represent information systems such as database systems, federation architectures provide services for integrating heterogeneous and distributed information systems to provide a single-system view of the information to a federation. At the same time, a federation maintains the anonymity and autonomy of each administrative domain and its clients, and clients interact with their local information system and services to produce and consume information. The storage and dissemination of information is managed through cooperation of the federation and the individual information systems (federates) participating in the federation.In this paper we present a services-based architecture for information federation and describe how the components and capabilities of that architecture participate in and interoperate with service-oriented architectures (SOAs). In particular, we discuss approaches to incorporating federation as a service for SOA, integrating heterogeneous SOA-based enterprise systems using federation, and integrating SOA-based systems with non-SOA systems through federation. We analyze the pros and cons for distributing federation services and examine a use case integrating systems with different performance characteristics. Finally, we discuss a number of services that could be used in conjunction with federation to enhance information interoperability. Throughout we motivate the need for federation as a distinct service in services-based systems of systems.
