Web Service Selection Using Topological Metadata

In the enterprise world of Web Services multiple nodes providing the same service is a prevalent way to achieve higher availability and scalability. Many a times service nodes are geographically distributed to handle failures at single operational site. This leads to a requirement where consumer of the service has to make a selection for the best service based on its location and load. As a result availability of the topological information of Web services can play an important role in determining the nearest node. It requires an understanding of network topology of the organization. Based on these observations this paper proposes a Web Services Proximity Resolution Framework for associating topological metadata with the service. The framework will utilize the enterprise network topology to make an appropriate and performant guess of the most usable service node.