Realtime-enabled Workflow Management in Service Oriented Infrastructures

Many applications, and especially the ones implementing multi-user collaborative environments, fall within the context of soft real time systems in which only small deviations from timing constraints are allowed. Furthermore, there is a growing trend that such applications are deployed in Service Oriented Infrastructures (SOIs), so as to take advantage of the capabilities that SOIs provide. In such an environment, the aforementioned applications are divided into multiple services within workflows. The dynamic nature of SOIs and their inability to adjust to the ever-changing resource availability and user demand poses an extra burden as workflow systems try to carry out more complex and mission-critical applications. In that frame, we discuss the work that has been carried out in the area of workflow management- developed to serve the needs of applications deployed in distributed environments, along with their limitations and potentials. Based on that, we present the research effort of the IRMOS EU-funded Project which advances the field of research in workflow management in order to support interactive real time applications on SOIs