OpenBinding: A QoS-Aware Service Composition API Gateway with Pluggable Engines

Abstract

OpenBinding is a microservice-based system that servitizes QoS-aware service composition (QACO) by exposing a unified, engine-agnostic API for submitting problem instances and retrieving the solutions, i.e., resulting bindings. The system provides (i) a common JSON contract that captures the modeling of QACO problem instances, (ii) a routing gateway that orchestrates validation and request forwarding to the selected engine, and (iii) a set of independent solver microservices (exact and heuristic) integrated behind common endpoints. We describe the API-level solving workflow: submitting an instance, selecting a solver engine, validating the request, executing the resolution, and obtaining a set of bindings in a uniform response format. We illustrate this workflow using a Fleet Management System (FMS) scenario derived from the literature. By standardizing I/O, making solver capabilities explicit, and supporting plug-in engines, OpenBinding enables reproducible experimentation and fair benchmarking across heterogeneous solving approaches.