Abstract

Environments offering facilities to compose, on-demand, networked software services offered by multiple providers will require accounting systems that have the ability to charge for composed services in a manner reflecting the potentially complex business agreements between these providers. We present a two-phase rating process that allows rating engines generate charge information for dynamically composed services without having to have a priori knowledge of the structure of these services. In the first phase individual services comprising the composed service are rated as if they were executed standalone. In the second phase these interim charges are modified in line with providers' rules regarding whether monetary discounts or penalties should be applied when their services are used with other services. We discuss the ongoing implementation of this process in the context of an enhanced Rating Bureau Service and its deployment in the "Digital Business Ecosystem" environment.