Integrating semantic Web services ranking mechanisms using a common preference model

• A flexible service ranking system that integrates several ranking approaches is proposed.
• A highly expressive common preference model allows ranking mechanisms combination.
• Our model enables interoperability between service retrieval and ranking mechanisms.
• A comprehensive use case discussion supports the applicability of our proposal.

Service ranking has been long-acknowledged to play a fundamental role in helping users to select the best offerings among services retrieved from a search request. There exist many ranking mechanisms, each one providing ad hoc preference models that offer different levels of expressiveness. Consequently, applying a single mechanism to a particular scenario constrains the user to define preferences based on that mechanism’s facilities. Furthermore, a more flexible solution that uses several independent mechanisms will face interoperability issues because of the differences between preference models provided by each ranking mechanism. In order to overcome these issues, we propose a Preference-based Universal Ranking Integration (PURI) framework that enables the combination of several ranking mechanisms using a common, holistic preference model. Using PURI, different ranking mechanisms are seamlessly and transparently integrated, offering a single façade to define preferences using highly expressive facilities that are not only decoupled from the concrete mechanisms that perform the ranking process, but also allow to exploit synergies from the combination of integrated mechanisms. We also thoroughly present a particular application scenario in the SOA4All EU project and evaluate the benefits and applicability of PURI in further domains.