Accurate sub-swarms particle swarm optimization algorithm for service composition

Service composition (SC) generates various composite applications quickly by using a novel service interaction model. Before composing services together, the most important thing is to find optimal candidate service instances compliant with non-functional requirements. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is known as an effective and efficient algorithm, which is widely used in this process. However, the premature convergence and diversity loss of PSO always results in suboptimal solutions. In this paper, we propose an accurate sub-swarms particle swarm optimization (ASPSO) algorithm by adopting parallel and serial niching techniques. The ASPSO algorithm locates optimal solutions by using sub-swarms searching grid cells in which the density of feasible solutions is high. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of the standard PSO algorithm in searching the optimal solution of service selection problem.