A feature-oriented WSDL extension for describing grid services

Grid computing and Feature-oriented Development Software are emerging technologies, which can be combined to analyze, model, and specify Grid services. In a Grid environment, there are a large number of similar resources provided by different parties, that may provide the same functionality, but different Quality of Service (QoS) measures. A feature-based approach is presented to optimize the development of Grid services and Grid service composition. WSDL specification is extended to contain useful description of both functional and non-functional characteristics by mean Design by Contract technique. In this way, Grid users can specify their QoS expectations and select suitable resources and use them for their Grid workflow at design time before its execution on the Grid.