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Vol: 55(69) No: 1 / March 2010      

Finite State Process Models of Protocol-Based Service Coordination
Amelia Bădică
Department of Business Information Systems, University of Craiova, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Str.A.I.Cuza 13, 200585 Craiova, Romania, e-mail: ameliabd@yahoo.com
Costin Bădică
Department of Software Engineering, University of Craiova, Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, Bvd.Decebal 107, 200440 Craiova, Romania, e-mail: cbadica@software.ucv.ro
Elvira Popescu
Department of Software Engineering, University of Craiova, Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, Bvd.Decebal 107, 200440 Craiova, Romania, e-mail: epopescu@software.ucv.ro
Mihnea Scafeş
Department of Software Engineering, University of Craiova, Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, Bvd.Decebal 107, 200440 Craiova, Romania, e-mail: mscafes@software.ucv.ro


Keywords: service coordination, interaction protocol, agent, finite state process.

Abstract
In this paper we propose a formal framework based on finite state process algebra for modeling service coordination in agent systems. The model is inspired by WS-Coordination specification. Several participant agents can coordinate their actions towards reaching a semantically consistent outcome in a distributed activity. Our model defines coordinator and participant agents and their generic interaction protocols and allows integration of application specific protocols by means of protocol handlers. The approach is demonstrated by developing a sample model that shows how coordination is achieved between a set of agents involved in contracting activities.

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