Describing Services in the Internet of Services

The Internet of Services is SAP Research’s vision for the Internet of the future, aka Business Web. The basic idea is that services are described more comprehensively as they are today. Especially for the Business Web, information about services like price models, legal entities, contact information, etc. are necessary. This data does not fit into current specifications like WSDL or similar approaches. Therefore, SAP Research has developed USDL (Unified Service Description Language), which can be used to model the missing pieces as described before. This enables new applications and ways of using, interacting, and orchestrating services, as you can read in SAP.info.

USDL is divided in several modules for specific purposes like participants, functional, pricing, and interaction. Further modules like legal and service level are currently under investigation. This means that they are less mature than the other modules. In order to put it on a solid basis, SAP Research and 3 other companies have started a W3C Incubator Group for USDL (W3C USDL XG Homepage). In this Incubator Group, we have the opportunity to improve USDL together with external companies and universities like HP, CA, Stanford University and others.

USDL is modeled using EMF/Ecore. Therefore, we have developed a tool for manipulating USDL files based on Eclipse. You can download it at the SDN Download Catalog and try it for free. This editor should considered to be an expert tool for debug purposes, as you can use it to model every feature of USDL. SAP Research is working on an end-user friendly version. Below you can find two screenshots of the current editor.