A Theory of Service Dependency

Abstract

Service composition has become commonplace nowadays, in large part due to the increased complexity of software and supporting networks. Composition can be of many types, for instance sequential, prioritising, non-deterministic. However, a fundamental feature of the services to be composed consists in their dependencies with respect to each other. In this paper we propose a theory of service dependency, modelled around a dependency operator in the Action Systems formalism. We analyze its properties, composition behaviour, and refinement conditions with accompanying examples.