WSPeer -- An Interface to Web Service Hosting and Invocation

This paper introduces WSPeer, a high level interface to hosting and invoking Web services. WSPeer aims to support the diversification of Web service deployments by providing a pluggable architecture that can be used to host Web services in a number of different ways. In particular, we are interested in the cross-fertilisation between Web services and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems by enabling entities to act as both service providers and consumers in a flexible and extensible way. Further, we support the behaviour needed within a P2P environment by allowing Web services to be dynamically deployed through the use of a lightweight container that is more suited to highly transient connectivity. This approach allows standard Web services to be deployed within a P2P environment and yet still adhere to a Service Oriented Architecture. We argue therefore that both Web services and P2P are exponents of Service Oriented Architecture, approaching the same goals from very different directions, and that a combination of the strengths of these approaches can lead to more robust and ubiquitous Web service and P2P deployments