Towards a collaborative approach to Web Service monitoring: In appreciation of connectivity challenges in Africa

Current approaches to Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring using Service Level Agreements (SLAs) fall short of appreciating the many possible causes of breaching these digital contracts. These approaches are mainly concerned with the enforcement of these contracts without paying attention to what aspects of the service oriented environment the service provider has no control over and which have direct impact on his ability to meet the contracted QoS. Paying attention to these aspects is very crucial in the African context with intermittent connectivity issues, including limited Internet speed and electricity outages among others. It is very likely therefore that most of the advertised QoS parameter, especially those with obvious dependency on connectivity, will be breached. Current approaches to Web Service monitoring do not consider this at all. This paper proposes a collaborative QoS monitoring approach that allows for mid-way renegotiation of contracted QoS/SLAs based on consumer´s initial service experience.