ABSTRACT
Web services (WSs) can be considered as the service-oriented architecture (SOA) with the highest market penetration. The WS architecture provides a set of modular protocol building blocks that can be composed in varying ways to meet requirements on the interaction of heterogeneous software components such as interoperability, self-description and security. WSs use widely accepted standards such as XML and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) for message exchange. For a better adaptation of WSs for embedded environments, Devices Profile for Web Service (DPWS) was developed. WS-Security provides mechanisms for message integrity and confidentiality to SOAP messaging. DPWS provides an SOA for hardware components by enabling WS capabilities on resource-constraint devices. This chapter describes applications making use of DPWS. A process management standard such as Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) will reveal the full potential of DPWS and simply the development and controlling of complex automation systems.
