Translating user preferences into fuzzy rules for the automatic selection of services

This article proposes an approach for including user preferences and quality of service characteristics in the selection process of services. Our approach consists of a Domain ontology for the service description vocabulary, and a trader that facilitates user-preference-based service selection, combining imperfect service matching and ranking algorithms. The novelty of our approach lies in the fact that we automatically generate fuzzy rules starting from individual user preferences and use them in a fuzzy inference process that ranks the service candidates. We present our experiments to evaluate our approach using a prototype implementation of a service broker.