Counting and billing mechanism for web-services based on a soap-communication protocol

• US 20040073661A1
• Filed: 11/06/2003
• Published: 04/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Eibach, Wolfgang, Kuebler, Dietmar, Gruetzner, Matthias
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and method for counting Web-Services by means of a Resource-Counter Service offered as an own, independent Web-Service based on a SOAP communication protocol as well as a system and method for billing Web-Services using the result of the Resource-Counter Service for calculation of a charge. The Resource-Counter Service may be accessed by all Service-Provider having service description of the Resource-Counter Service. The service description for the Resource-Counter Service may be preferably created and published by the Service-Provider, categorized by the Service-Broker, and can be found and used to invoke the Resource-Counter Service by all Service-Provider using a charging model for their Web-Services. The Resource-Counter Service mainly provides the functionality to create all necessary data allowing calculation of the charge for the use of a Web-Service. The final calculation of the charge itself may be done by a separate specific accounting and bill presentment component.

Claims

1. Service-Provider System for providing chargeable Web-Services for Service-Requesters comprising:

a Service-Provider Web-Service component

a Service-Provider communication component (SOAP-server) allowing electronic communication between said Service-Provider system and a Service-Requester system using a SOAP-communication protocol, wherein said Service Requester system having an application which generates digital data to be used by said Web-Service, a service description for accessing said Web-Service via said Service-Provider communication component (SOAP-server) and a communication component (SOAP-client) for exchanging digital data between said application and said Web-Service via said SOAP-server by using a SOAP-communication protocol

characterized by

service description for electronically accessing a Resource-Counter Service provided by another Service-Provider having a communication component (SOAP-client) allowing electronic communication with another Service-Provider systems by using a SOAP-communication protocol, and a Resource-Counter Service providing data for electronic calculation of charges of said Web-Service to be accessed by said Service Requester

a communication component (SOAP-client) for electronically exchanging data with a communication component (SOAP-server) of said Resource-Counter Service by using said service description of said Resource-Counter Service and using a SOAP-communication protocol.

2. Service-Provider System according to claim 1, wherein said service description for accessing said Resource-Counter Service is provided by a Service-Broker using a SOAP-communication protocol.

3. Service-Provider System according to claim 1, wherein said SOAP-communication protocol is based on a HTTP-protocol.

4. Service-Provider System according to claim 1, wherein said service description is a XML document describing the semantics and the message API (Application Programming Interface) of said Resource-Counter Service Service.

5. Service-Provider according to claim 1, further comprising:

a bill present component having access to the data provided by said Resource-Counter Service for calculation of charges for Web-Service to be counted.

6. Resource-Counter Service-Provider system for providing Resource-Counter Service for a Service-Provider system as claimed in claim 1 comprising:

a Resource-Counter Service component providing data for calculation of Web-Service to be accessed by Service Requester a communication component(SOAP-server) for electronically receiving data from a communication component (SOAP-client) located at the Service-Provider system, electronically passing said data to said Resource-Counter Service component, electronically receiving the result of the Resource-Counter Service component and electronically transmitting said result to the said communication component (SOAP-client) of said Service-Provider providing a Web-Service to be accessed by said Service Requester, wherein the communication protocol used by said component is SOAP.

7. Resource-Counter Service-Provider system according to claim 6, wherein said Resource-Counter Service component is extended by a bill present presentment functionality using the data provided by said Resource-Counter Service functionality and calculating charges'"'"' for said Web-Service to be accessed.

8. Resource-Counter Service-Provider system according to claim 6, wherein a service description for accessing said Resource-Counter Service is created and published by said Resource-Counter Service-Provider system in the right category in the Service-Broker'"'"'s taxonomy using SOAP communication protocol.

9. Resource-Counter Service-Provider system according to claim 8, wherein said SOAP-communication protocol is based on HTTP.

10. Resource-Counter Service-Provider system according to claim 8, wherein said service description is a XML document.

12. Method for counting and charging of Web-Services using Service-Provider system as claimed in claim 1 to 10, comprising the steps of:

performing an authentication process between Service requester and Service-Provider

receiving a SOAP-Bind request for the requested Web-Service being created by the SOAP-client of said Service-Requester

creating an instance for the Web-Service to be selected

sending a SOAP-Bind request to the SOAP-server of the Resource-Counter Service-Provider for execution of said Resource-Counter Service

receiving a SOAP-response from said Resource-Counter Service-Provider that the Resource is started executing said Web-Service

sending a SOAP-request to said Resource-Counter Service-for stopping of counting when said Web-Service is completed

receiving a SOAP-response that the Resource-Counter Service is stopped

sending a SOAP-request to said Service-Requester containing the result of said Web-Service.

13. Method according to claim 12, wherein said SOAP-Bind request for execution of said Resource-Counter Service contains data for authentication of said Service-Provider.

14. Method according to claim 12, wherein an authentication process is performed with said Resource-Counter Service-Provider before said SOAP-Bind request is sent.

15. Method according to claim 12, further including the steps:

receiving a SOAP-response containing Resource-Counter data for said Web-Service being accessed

calculating charges for said Web-Service being accessed by said Service-Requester based on said Resource-Counter data

sending a bill to said Service-Requester containing charges of said Web-Service being accessed.

16. Method according to claim 12, further including the step:

receiving a SOAP-response containing a bill being calculated and created by said Resource-Counter Service based on said Resource-Counter data and an account model provided by said Service-Provider

sending said bill to said Service-Requester.

17. Computer program product stored in the internal memory of a digital computer, containing parts of software code to execute the method in accordance with claims 12 to 16 if the product is run on the computer.

11. Web-Service architecture comprising:

a Service-Requester system comprising;

a communication component (SOAP-client) allowing electronic communication between said Service-Requester system and said Service-Provider system using a SOAP-communication protocol, wherein said Service Requester system having an application which generates digital data to be used by said Web-Service, and a service description for accessing said Web-Service

a Service-Provider system providing a Web-Service for Service Requester systems comprising;

a communication component (SOAP-server) allowing electronic communication of said communication component of said Service-Requester system with said Web-Service using a SOAP-communication protocol service description for electronically accessing a Resource-Counter Service provided by another Service-Provider

a communication component (SOAP-client) for electronically exchanging data with a communication component (SOAP-server) of a Resource-Counter Service by using said service description of said Resource-Counter Service and using a SOAP-communication protocol

a Resource-Counter Service-Provider system comprising;

a Resource-Counter Service component for counting of a Web-Service

a communication component (SOAP-server) for electronically receiving data from a communication component (SOAP-client) located at the Service-Provider system providing Web-Service to be accessed, electronically passing said data to said Resource-Counter Service, electronically receiving the result of the Resource-Counter Service and electronically transmitting said result to the communication component of said Service-Provider, wherein the communication protocol used by said component is SOAP.