Modeling business processes with BPEL4WS

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) allows defining both, business processes that make use of Web services, and business processes that externalize their functionality as Web services. This short paper introduces the basic language elements of BPEL4WS using a simple example. The concepts underlying the language are briefly explained: establishing bilateral partnerships, correlating messages and processes, defining the order of the activities of a business process, event handling, handling exceptions via long-running transactions, and the usage of BPEL4WS in pure B2B scenarios. The paper finishes off by presenting the resulting application structure and the resulting economical implications.     

分布式流数据加载和查询技术优化

分布式流查询是一种基于数据流的实时查询计算方法,近年来得到了广泛的关注和快速发展。综述了分布式流处理框架在实时关系型查询上取得的研究成果;对涉及分布式数据加载、分布式流计算框架、分布式流查询的产品进行了分析和比较;提出了基于Spark Streaming和Apache Kafka构建的分布式流查询模型,以并发加载多个文件源的形式,设计内存文件系统实现数据的快速加载,相较于基于Apache Flume的加载技术提速1倍以上。在Spark Streaming的基础上,实现了基于Spark SQL的分布式流查询接口,并提出了自行编码解析SQL语句的方法,实现了分布式查询。测试结果表明,在查询语句复杂的情况下,自行编码解析SQL的查询效率具有明显的优势。     

适应性查询处理——Internet数据查询面临的挑战与解决技术

随着基于Internet的数据查询系统的发展与普及,适应性查询处理逐渐成为一项重要的技术。目前的Internet可以看作一个庞大的分布式和异构化数据库,各个数据源具有自治性,加上广域网网络传输带宽的限制,各个数据源数据的可访问性以及传输速度是经常变化和不可预测的。传统的采用“停止-进行”方式的查询处理不能很好地处理这种情况。而能够在查询执行过程中动态调整查询计划的适应性查询处理是针对此类应用的最佳选择。文章论述适应性查询处理涉及的研究课题及解决技术,并例举最新的研究成果。     

XML数据查询的并行算法

目前已经提出了多种查询XML数据的方法,然而这些传统的方法不能充分利用多处理器和多核心处理器的优势。本文提出了一种XML查询的并行算法,大幅提高了共享存储器多处理器、多核心处理器系统中XML数据的查询效率。     

Query optimization in XML structured-document databases

While the information published in the form of XML-compliant documents keeps fast mounting up, efficient and effective query processing and optimization for XML have now become more important than ever. This article reports our recent advances in XML structured-document query optimization. In this article, we elaborate on a novel approach and the techniques developed for XML query optimization. Our approach performs heuristic-based algebraic transformations on XPath queries, represented as PAT algebraic expressions, to achieve query optimization. This article first presents a comprehensive set of general equivalences with regard to XML documents and XML queries. Based on these equivalences, we developed a large set of deterministic algebraic transformation rules for XML query optimization. Our approach is unique, in that it performs exclusively deterministic transformations on queries for fast optimization. The deterministic nature of the proposed approach straightforwardly renders high optimization efficiency and simplicity in implementation. Our approach is a logical-level one, which is independent of any particular storage model. Therefore, the optimizers developed based on our approach can be easily adapted to a broad range of XML data/information servers to achieve fast query optimization. Experimental study confirms the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

An adaptable distributed query processing architecture

Traditionally, distributed query optimization techniques generate static query plans at compile time. However, the optimality of these plans depends on many parameters (such as the selectivities of operations, the transmission speeds and workloads of servers) that are not only difficult to estimate but are also often unpredictable and fluctuant at runtime. As the query processor cannot dynamically adjust the plans at runtime, the system performance is often less than satisfactory. In this paper, we introduce a new highly adaptive distributed query processing architecture. Our architecture can quickly detect fluctuations in selectivities of operations, as well as transmission speeds and workloads of servers, and accordingly change the operation order of a distributed query plan during execution. We have implemented a prototype based on the Telegraph system [Telegragraph project. Available from >]. Our experimental study shows that our mechanism can adapt itself to the changes in the environment and hence approach to an optimal plan during execution.     

Querying Semistructured Heterogeneous Information

Semistructured data has no absolute schema fixed in advance and its structure may be irregular or incomplete. Such data commonly arises in sources that do not impose a rigid structure (such as the World-Wide Web) and when data is combined from several heterogeneous sources. Data models and query languages designed for well structured data are inappropriate in such environments. Starting with a lightweight object model adopted for the TSIMMIS project at Stanford, in this paper we describe a query language and object repository designed specifically for semistructured data. Our language provides meaningful query results in cases where conventional models and languages do not: when some data is absent, when data does not have regular structure, when similar concepts are represented using different types, when heterogeneous sets are present, and when object structure is not fully known. This paper motivates the key concepts behind our approach, describes the language through a series of examples (a complete semantics is available in an accompanying technical report [23]), and describes the basic architecture and query processing strategy of the lightweight object repository we have developed.     

XCube: Processing XPath queries in a hypercube overlay network

In this paper, we present the design and performance of XCube, a tag-based system for managing XML data in a hypercube overlay network. In XCube, each node in a d-dimensional hypercube is identified by a d-bit vector. A peer manages a smaller hypercube with dimension d′?d. An XML document is compactly represented as a structure summary and a content summary. The structure summary comprises a d-bit vector derived from the distinct tag names in the document and a synopsis capturing the structure of the document. The content summary consists of a bit map that summarizes the document content. The metadata of a document, i.e., owner IP, document identifier, structure summary and content summary, is indexed at its anchor peer (the peer that manages the node with matching bit vector). In addition, the structure summary is further indexed at all peers that manages nodes whose bit vectors are covered by the document’s bit vector. An XPath query is processed in four phases. In phase 1, the query is routed to its anchor peer according to the bit vector of the query. In phase 2, the query is evaluated against all the synopses stored in its anchor peer and forwarded to the anchor peers of the matching synopses. In phase 3, the anchor peer of each related synopsis examines the query on the related bit maps and forwards the query to the related owner peers. Finally in phase 4, the owner peers evaluate the query on the XML documents and return answers to the querying peer. We also present a scheme that dynamically partitions the hypercube to balance the load across peers. We further exploit the partition history to remove redundant messages. We conduct a comprehensive experimental study and the results show the efficiency of XCube.     

基于X-RESTORE查询XML视图

基于转换 XML文档到关系数据库中进行存储与查询的策略 ,研究了 XML视图查询的有效计算问题 .提出了XML 视图查询的合成重写技术 ,它能够消除视图查询中所有在视图结构上的路径导航操作 ,并将视图查询中所有在原文档结构上的路径导航操作以及所有谓词操作下推到视图定义中去 ,与视图定义中的路径导航操作相结合 ,形成统一的在原文档结构上的路径导航操作 .视图合成重写不仅避免了对视图中不出现在最后结果中的中间 XML 片段的构造 ,而且允许将查询中的所有内存密集型或数据密集型操作尽量下推到关系引擎中去执行 ,从而提高 XQuery查询的执行性能     

基于宣告式网络的网络溯源系统的设计与实现

网络的举证分析、错误诊断在网络管理和安全方面正发挥着越来越重要的作用。这就要求网络管理系统具有网络溯源的功能。网络溯源可以用于跟踪信息在网络上流传的轨迹,确定信息数据来源。提出了一个网络溯源系统(NPS)框架的设计与实现,该框架可以支持在大规模的分布式环境中获得网络溯源,采用了新近提出的宣告式网络技术来有效地维护和查询分布式网络溯源。该框架采用基于引用的方式来传递溯源信息,采用有向无环图来表示溯源信息,在分布式网络中实现了高效的网络溯源。在ns-3构建的模拟网络中进行了仿真实验,实验结果表明该网络溯源系统框架可以有效地支持一个大规模分布式网络的溯源计算,与传统方法相比显著地减少了带宽的开销。     

An intelligent query processing for distributed ontologies

In this paper, we propose an intelligent distributed query processing method considering the characteristics of a distributed ontology environment. We suggest more general models of the distributed ontology query and the semantic mapping among distributed ontologies compared with the previous works. Our approach rewrites a distributed ontology query into multiple distributed ontology queries using the semantic mapping, and we can obtain the integrated answer through the execution of these queries. Furthermore, we propose a distributed ontology query processing algorithm with several query optimization techniques: pruning rules to remove unnecessary queries, a cost model considering site load balancing and caching, and a heuristic strategy for scheduling plans to be executed at a local site. Finally, experimental results show that our optimization techniques are effective to reduce the response time.     

半结构化数据查询的处理和优化

半结构化数据的特点是数据的结构不规则或不完整,其模型都基于带根有向图,因此,查询处理过程本质上是对图的搜索过程.另外,通配路径使查询处理更加复杂化.文章详细介绍了异构数据源集成系统Versatile中采取的半结构数据OIM(model for object integration)对象的查询和优化策略,包括查询计划的生成、路径扩展和路径索引、层次索引和基于数据源知识这3种查询优化方法.文章介绍的方法同样适用于其他的半结构化数据模型.     

Modeling and execution of event stream processing in business processes

The Internet of Things and Cyber-physical Systems provide enormous amounts of real-time data in the form of streams of events. Businesses can benefit from the integration of these real-world data; new services can be provided to customers, or existing business processes can be improved. Events are a well-known concept in business processes. However, there is no appropriate abstraction mechanism to encapsulate event stream processing in units that represent business functions in a coherent manner across the process modeling, process execution, and IT infrastructure layer. In this paper we present Event Stream Processing Units (SPUs) as such an abstraction mechanism. SPUs encapsulate application logic for event stream processing and enable a seamless transition between process models, executable process representations, and components at the IT layer. We derive requirements for SPUs and introduce EPC and BPMN extensions to model SPUs at the abstract and at the technical process layer. We introduce a transformation from SPUs in EPCs to SPUs in BPMN and implement our modeling notation extensions in Software AG ARIS. We present a runtime infrastructure that executes SPUs and supports implicit invocation and completion semantics. We illustrate our approach using a logistics process as running example.     

Adaptive workload allocation in query processing in autonomous heterogeneous environments

The increasing prevalence of networked storage and computational resources, along with middleware for managing resource access and sharing, raises the prospect that queries can be run over resources obtained on demand, rather than on dedicated infrastructures. However, the movement of query processing into non-dedicated environments means that it is necessary to take account of the partial information and unstable conditions that characterise autonomous, shared, distributed settings. Thus, query processing on grid platforms needs to be adaptive, revising evaluation strategies at query runtime in response to the evolving environment, such as changes to machine load and availability. To address this challenge, adaptive techniques are described that: (i) balance load across plan partitions supporting intra-operator parallelism; (ii) remove bottlenecks in pipelined plans supporting inter-operator parallelism; and (iii) combine the two aforementioned techniques. The approach has been empirically evaluated in a grid-enabled adaptive query processor.     

一种关于分布式查询技术的实现方法

以实现分布式查询的正确性、透明性及优化性为目标,针对粮食储备管理系统的分布式查询处理需求,系统地研究分布式查询处理器的总体设计、线程控制、消息通信、分布式查询优化等问题以及实现技术, 弥补了SQL Server数据库中分布式查询功能的不足.     

A conceptual framework for understanding business processes and business process modelling

It is increasingly common to describe organizations as sets of business processes that can be analysed and improved by approaches such as business process modelling. Successful business process modelling relies on an adequate view of the nature of business processes, but there is a surprising divergence of opinion about the nature of these processes. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to organize different views of business processes under four headings. It also aims at providing an integrated discussion of the different streams of thought, their strengths and limitations, within business process modelling. It argues that the multifaceted nature of business processes calls for pluralistic and multidisciplinary modelling approaches.     

Introducing decision-aware business processes

Business processes are designed to smoothly operate under multiple contexts (or business situations). Each context technically implies taking a different course of action. Be that as it may, going for the most appropriate action is still left up to the business process participant without any kind of assistance. Such a situation demonstrates that there is a lack of a context-aware decision-making feature. This paper addresses the issue of enabling a context-aware decision-making within the frame of business processes. We combine the concepts of business process, context-awareness and decision-making to introduce a new concept of Decision-Aware Business Processes in which decision partitions are the cornerstones. A decision partition reacts to the collected contextual parameters by selecting or recommending the most appropriate decision(s). In fact, the focus of this research is to introduce a new formalism for designing these partitions by means of patterns. Throughout our approach, each proposed pattern leads to building decision partitions in a straight-forward fashion. An overall example is proposed to illustrate our approach. It is inspired from the banking industry and introduces a decision-aware business process that handles loan applications. To sum up, whether seasoned, novice or in-between, business process participants will be able to save time in taking action(s). Moreover, the workflow becomes no longer stagnant across the business process. Instead, it dynamically adapts itself to each new set of business requirements imposed by the collected contextual input(s).