Abstract
This chapter analyzes the possibilities of applying the cloud concepts in the realization of the interoperable electronic business of traffic and transport subjects. Special attention is paid to defining the Business-to-Business (B2B) model of integrating the traffic business subjects in cloud computing technological environment. It describes the design, implementation, and application of the cloud concepts on the examples of B2B integration in the field of traffic. The examples demonstrate the usage of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) by traffic business subjects in the Republic of Serbia. The examples of PaaS are the databases created and hosted on Microsoft SQL Azure platform. The examples of SaaS are Web services hosted on Microsoft Windows Azure platform. The defined model of B2B integration allows interoperability of the traffic business subjects on the syntactic, conceptual, and semantic level.
TopBackground
Traffic and transport systems are the very complex systems, so they are organizationally divided into a great number of units, such as directorates, sectors, services, etc. (Lee, Tseng, & Shieh, 2010). Each organizational unit uses applications and databases designed to meet their specific needs. It is not uncommon that one particular entity from the real system is modelled in multiple databases that are used in different organizational units (Radonjic, Jankovic, Mladenovic, Veskovic, & Kostic-Ljubisavljevic, 2011). An organizational unit of one transport systems often use the data generated and updated by another organizational unit. On the railways, for example, work of the Sector for transportation of goods and passengers is based on the data given by the Directorate of Infrastructure (data on construction, electrotechnical, telecommunication and transport infrastructure and its maintenance), the Department for maintenance of rolling stock and the Department for towing trains (Janković & Mladenović, 2012). In addition, each unit uses its own databases and applications. This creates redundancy and inconsistency of data. This means that cooperation between organizations and/or organizational units are often based on reports that have different syntax and semantics. To avoid redundancy and inconsistency of data and to avoid incompatible reports, it is necessary to enable the B2B integration of organizations and different organizational units of one traffic and transport system.
In defining the legal and institutional frames of integration, two basic types of B2B integrations are distinguished:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): A software delivery model in which software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud.
Cloud Computing Concepts: Involve a large number of computers connected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet.
Ontology: A formally representation of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts.
E-Business: The application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of business.
Semantic Interoperability: The ability of computer systems to transmit data with unambiguous, shared meaning.
Traffic Sector: The enterprises that perform traffic and transportation services, but rather also all non-traffic subjects that in some way enable and insure the realization of the transportation service.
B2B Integration Technology: The software technology that is the infrastructure to connect any back-end application system within enterprises to all its trading partners.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A software design and software architecture design pattern based on discrete pieces of software that provide application functionality as services.
Interoperability: The ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together.