Web services workflow with result data forwarding as resources

Under a centralized workflow model, distributed data transfer between consecutive services in a Web service workflow can save network bandwidth and avoid the centralized workflow engine being overloaded. The proposed Web Service Data Forwarding (WSDF) framework harnesses the Web Service Resource Framework (WSRF) to meet this requirement. A WSDF compliant service in a workflow can forward the result to its successor service for future usage. This result forwarding function is implemented at the WSDF server level and is transparent to functional services. Our prototype system has shown that this framework can save data transfer time and significantly improve the overall performance of some workflows. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.