Dynamic service selections using enhanced ontologies

• US 8,260,737 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Friesen, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Buss, Benjamin
• Application Number:
  US12/415,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 706/55
• US Class Current: 706/55
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

Embodiments may include a system for generating an enhancement of an ontology. The system may have a memory unit and a processing unit. The memory unit may be configured to provide the ontology and to store the ontology with the enhancement. The processing unit may be configured to identify a service specification, such as a service product or a contract, that may be represented by a class of the ontology. The service specification may describe a capability of a service. The processing unit may be further configured to compute a set of instances that are specified by the service specification and by a requirement specification and to enhance the ontology with a generated class representing the set of instances in case that the set of instances has one or more instances.

Claims

1. A system for generating an enhancement of a request ontology, the system comprising:

a memory unit configured to provide the request ontology and to store the request ontology with the enhancement; and

a processing unit configured to;

identify a service specification being represented by a class of the request ontology, the service specification describing a capability of a service,

compute a set of instances that are specified by the service specification and by a requirement specification describing at least one characteristic for selecting the service that is independent of the class of the request ontology,

enhance the request ontology with a generated class representing the computed set of instances specified by the service specification and by the requirement specification, wherein the generated class represents a condition part of a selection rule based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service, and

generate an action part of the selection rule using an identification of the service so that a relation between the generated class and the service is represented by the selection rule having the condition part and the action part,

wherein the condition part of the selection rule specifies a condition based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service and the action part of the selection rule specifies an action to be executed when the condition of the condition part is fulfilled.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to compute a priority value for the selection rule according to a subset rule, the subset rule including that a first condition part that specifies a first set of instances has a higher priority than a second condition part that specifies a second set of instances in case that the first set of instances is a subset of the second condition part.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the service specification is publicly available and comprises a reference to a publicly available ontology.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service specification is private and comprises one or more limitations from a contract specification and a reference to a publicly available ontology.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to receive a service request with a specification in accordance with the request ontology and to select the service in case that the service request is subsumable under the generated class.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processing unit is further configured to identify the service in a plurality of services according to a runtime selection rule.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the runtime selection rule includes any one or more of the following selection rules:

selection of the service with the lowest price, selection of the service with the fastest execution, selection of the service with the highest reliability.

8. A computer-implemented method for generating an enhancement of an ontology, the method comprising:

identifying a service specification being represented by a class of the ontology, the service specification describing a capability of a service;

computing a set of instances that are specified by the service specification and by a requirement specification describing at least one characteristic for selecting the service that is independent of the class of the request ontology;

enhancing the ontology with a generated class representing the computed set of instances specified by the service specification and by the requirement specification, wherein the generated class represents a condition part of a selection rule based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service; and

generating an action part of the selection rule using an identification of the service so that a relation between the generated class and the service is represented by the selection rule having the condition part and the action part,

wherein the condition part of the selection rule specifies a condition based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service and the action part of the selection rule specifies an action to be executed when the condition of the condition part is fulfilled.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising computing a priority value for the selection rule according to a subset rule, the subset rule including that a first condition part that specifies a first set of instances has a higher priority than a second condition part that specifies a second set of instances in case that the first set of instances is a subset of the second condition part.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the service specification is publicly available and comprises a reference to a publicly available ontology.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the service specification is private and comprises one or more limitations from a contract specification and a reference to a publicly available ontology.

12. The method of claim 8, further receiving a service request with a specification in accordance with the ontology and selecting the service in case that the service request is subsumable under the generated class.

13. The method of claim 12, further identifying the service in a plurality of services according to a runtime selection rule.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the runtime selection rule includes any one or more of the following selection rules:

selection of the service with the lowest price, selection of the service with the fastest execution, selection of the service with the highest reliability.

15. A computer program product for handling transaction information, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium and including executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause a data processing apparatus to:

identify a service specification being represented by a class of the ontology, the service specification describing a capability of a service;

compute a set of instances that are specified by the service specification and by a requirement specification describing at least one characteristic for selecting the service that is independent of the class of the request ontology;

enhance the ontology with a generated class representing the computed set of instances specified by the service specification and by the requirement specification, wherein the generated class represents a condition part of a selection rule based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service; and

generate an action part of the selection rule using an identification of the service so that a relation between the generated class and the service is represented by the selection rule having the condition part and the action part,

wherein the condition part of the selection rule specifies a condition based on the at least one characteristic for selecting the service and the action part of the selection rule specifies an action to be executed when the condition of the condition part is fulfilled.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the executable code, when executed, is further configured to cause the data processing apparatus to:

compute a priority value for the selection rule according to a subset rule, the subset rule being that a first condition part that specifies a first set of instances has a higher priority than a second condition part that specifies a second set of instances in case that the first set of instances is a subset of the second condition part.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the service specification is publicly available and comprises a reference to a publicly available ontology.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the service specification is private and comprises one or more limitations from a contract specification and a reference to a publicly available ontology.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, further receiving a service request with a specification in accordance with the ontology and selecting the service in case that the service request is subsumable under the generated class.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the executable code, when executed, is further configured to cause the data processing apparatus to:

identify the service in a plurality of services according to a runtime selection rule, wherein the runtime selection rule includes any one or more of the following selection rules;

selection of the service with the lowest price, selection of the service with the fastest execution, selection of the service with the highest reliability.