Interoperable SOA-Based Architecture for E-Government Portal

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integrates one-stop portal, e-government service application, and e-government service ... Keywords- Software Architecture; E-government Portal;. Interoperability ... the diversity and completeness of e-services, and technical quality. Individual ...
Interoperable SOA-Based Architecture for E-Government Portal Khairul Anwar Sedek1,2, Mohd Adib Omar1

Shahida Sulaiman

School of Computer Sciences1 Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 USM Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences2 Universiti Teknologi MARA 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia [email protected], [email protected]

Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 81310 UTM, Skudai Johor, Malaysia. [email protected]

Abstract— An effective e-government platform provides greater access to government services among citizens, businesses, and tourists. However, most e-government portals are not integrated as each government agency has its own portal. This may cause confusion and becomes a cumbersome task among stakeholders. This paper proposes a one-stop e-government architecture that integrates one-stop portal, e-government service application, and e-government service provider. The architecture provides seamless interoperability of e-government services among different government agencies. This work exploits various Web technologies and service oriented architecture approaches such as Web portal, portlet, service component architecture, Web services, and BPEL. Finally, this work presents the proof-ofconcept of the proposed architecture and a case study in an egovernment service environment. Keywords- Software Architecture; E-government Interoperability, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

I.

Portal;

INTRODUCTION

E-government has become a necessary technology for every government to provide effective and efficient service among its various stakeholders. E-government benefits a lot from the Internet and Web technology which allow easy access to information and services from anywhere at any time. Users of e-government mainly consist of citizen, businesses, and other government agencies as well as foreigners including foreign workers, foreign business executives, and tourists. Egovernment becomes a popular service centre because it allows interaction between government and its clients for smoother, easier, efficient, and faster services. Furthermore, egovernment portal provides one-stop centre to access government services. As a real one-stop e-government portal, all the required services will be provided at one place even though the services are provided by different agencies. The agencies collaborated to bring the services in a one-stop centre. Today, e-government users’ needs and wants become more complex and dynamic. Users need a real one-stop centre of services where they can access and request any government service from a single window [1]. A comprehensive portal

provides both psychological and tangible benefits including the output quality of system attributes and individual attributes [2]. The output quality of system attributes are information quality, the diversity and completeness of e-services, and technical quality. Individual attributes that affect users’ adoption are individual trust in information sufficiency and reliability, security and privacy standard, and perceived usefulness. These factors will affect e-government quality and users’ satisfaction. Among important requirements to achieve a real one-stop centre are integration and interoperability. It is because the system should be interoperable with other various agencies to provide comprehensive services at one place [3–5]. Designing an interoperable e-government is a very complex and difficult task because it involves heterogeneous system, data, and processes [6]. Moreover, e-government system is less reliable and under developed as compared to e-business and ecommerce. Current technologies such as Web portal, Web service, service oriented architecture (SOA), e-government service bus, and ontology are believed to improve e-government interoperability. The paper presents an architecture of egovernment portal using open system to achieve better integration and interoperability of e-government system. The following section provides an overview of the e-government integration and interoperability. A. E-government Integration and Interoperability Dias and Rafael [1] define a one-stop e-government as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the provision of client-centred public services. The integration and interoperability of e-government services are essential in order to build a real one-stop e-government portal [7]. It is because a real one-stop portal needs seamless work collaboration among different government agencies. It is not achievable by linking all e-government applications to one place like what most e-government portals provide currently. Therefore, a one-stop e-government portal should be integrated and interoperable.

An integrated system is the ability of two or more systems to interact to form a whole [8]. Therefore, in an integrated egovernment, two or more e-government agencies can be connected and interact to exchange information. Furthermore, it also means a government system can access another system for service request. E-government portal provides services in the form of informational services or process flow services. In general, interoperability is the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged [9]. Scholl and Klischewski [10] define interoperation and interoperability and their relationship in e-government as shown in Figure 1. Interoperation is the ability of different and independent components of e-government partners and external partners to work together in a predefined and agreed way. Interoperability is the technical capability for e-government interoperation. There are three layers of interoperability: technical interoperability, syntactic interoperability, and semantic interoperability.

Figure 1. The relationship of e-government interoperation and interoperability between two nodes [10].

The integration and interoperability of e-government are constrained in constitutional or legal, jurisdiction, collaborative, organizational, informational, managerial, cost, technological, and performance [10]. These nine constraints show the complex environment for e-government integration and interoperation. The e-government design and architecture should refer to these constraints to fulfil the foci and purposes of e-government in order to achieve a successful outcome. B. Service Oriented Architecture and E-government Service oriented architecture (SOA) is a new application architectural style and principles which is consists of service consumer, service description, service provider, and service broker [11]. Figure 2 depicts conceptual model of SOA. In a typical SOA scenario, service consumer finds services from service broker. Service broker supplies service description. Web Service Document Language (WSDL) encapsulates service description. WSDL contains information about the services such as service type, message, operation, port type, binding, port and service. Service consumer then requests service-to-service provider in a service message. The message is wrapped in a message envelop called as Simple Object Access Control (SOAP). Service provider returns the message response also in SOAP envelop.

The architectural style of SOA is simple and suitable for egovernment integration and interoperability [12]. Loosely couple application and location transparency of SOA allow choreograph services into composite application. SOA uses standard protocols to provide seamless connectivity of application and interoperability. E-government can create services using standard Web service. Web service developers can reuse Web service components to enhance the existing services and applications. SOA allow parallel and independent application development. In layered SOA approach, developers can work parallel in different layer. Various open source tools and framework for SOA-based application development allow e-government project developed in very minimum cost as well as preventing vendor lock-in. This is very suitable for egovernment system in developing and underdeveloped countries, which allocate small budget for ICT sector.

Figure 2. SOA conceptual model [11]

Despite potential benefit of SOA-based e-government, there are issues and challenges that need to be addressed in research and development activities. Many e-government efforts are confronted with a lack of interoperability and integration of systems and the need to develop or expand the infrastructure [5]. The integration and collaboration of egovernment initiatives have not been sufficiently addressed despite the existence of heterogeneous system among egovernment systems [4]. Furthermore, the level of adoption and sophistication of e-government practices vary greatly among governments. C. Research Questions and Objectives This paper aims to identify an architectural approach to improve integration and interoperability for e-government systems. In order to achieve this objective, this paper identifies better approach for e-government architecture by answering the following questions. How can e-government system improve its service provision through improvement of integration and interoperability? To answer this question, this study identifies how to achieve integration of e-government systems where egovernment entities can be formed together for interoperability of e-government services. E-government entities consist of a one-stop e-government portal, e-government application providers, and service providers. Section III explains the roles

and integration method of the entities. Then this study looks for interoperability approach of e-government services so that egovernment services can interoperate smoothly and effectively. At the architectural level, this study sees how service provider can provide services through the one-stop e-government portal. This study investigates how to provide an effective and efficient integration and interoperability of e-government systems to achieve a real one-stop e-government portal. The focus is to provide architectural level of e-government system. The proposed architecture is based on open standard of SOA. The architecture describes method of system integration and service interoperability. Therefore, the approach should be easy and effective for developers of e-government systems. This paper expects to contribute to an architectural framework for e-government that is consists of a one-stop egovernment portal, e-government service applications, and egovernment service providers. The result should be able to help developers of e-government portals. D. Theoretical Framework This study considers two dimensions of evaluation for egovernment interoperability architecture that are integration (I) and interoperability (P). Integration ensures different systems connected. Interoperability ensures different services from different service providers work together. Both parameters are essential for one-stop e-government portal. Integration and interoperability involve message transmission during operation of service respond (SRp) and service request (SRq) between service client and service provider. Figure 3 shows the theoretical framework to describe the relationship between service client and service provider, service request and service respond, and integration and interoperability.

Figure 3. Theoretical framework

II.

RELATED WORK

Citizens or non-citizens as well as businesses or nonbusinesses require efficient and effective government services in order to improve their quality of living and develop their business and career. The state-of-the-art of e-government technology provides high-quality services to citizens and contributes significantly to their success [13], [14]. New technology includes e-government technology that should fulfil current and future needs and wants. Researchers of ICT and software engineering have been working on finding ways to improve the delivery of government services through egovernment. This paper focuses on how to provide a one-stop interoperable e-government portal using architectural approach.

Malaysia embarks Civil Service Link as a one-stop resource centre in 1994 for private sectors to obtain information on the public sectors [15]. The project is as part of the public service transformation towards paperless administration and improving service delivery and performance. Since 2002, a new ICT initiative has been launched to enhance e-government using Internet technology such as Generic Office Environment, EServices, E-Syariah, e-Tanah, E-Procurement, JobsMalaysia, eKL, and e-Bario [16]. Most of the projects are standalone web-based applications. A few projects have integration or link with other agencies such as E-services and E-Procurement. However, there is no initiative that integrates everything as a one-stop e-government service. This problem also exists in other countries. European Union (EU) development in egovernment has not sufficiently addressed the integration and collaboration of e-government even though this issue is critical towards an effective e-government [4]. Researchers propose effective approach to improve egovernment service delivery including citizen-centric [17], [18], one-stop portal [19], social networking [20], and integrated e-government [21]. These approaches improve egovernment service by providing effective method of service interface for users to access services. Some researchers also work on architecture framework for e-government system by providing high quality of an e-government system. Layered egovernment architecture helps effective separation of egovernment components [22]. Layered architecture consists of access layer, e-government layer, e-business layer, and infrastructure. E-government system with social networking integration help to improve service networking between citizens, businesses, and public agencies [17], [18], [20]. The approach utilizes OpenSocial API [23] and API REST interface [24], [25]. E-governments nowadays need collaboration and integration of public services to fulfil complex users’ needs and wants [26–28]. The needs include integration, coordination, and interaction within and between individual systems in public sector organizations [22]. SOA approaches help improving service reusability [21]. Furthermore, the SOA layered model integrates enterprise service bus (ESB) and service component architecture (SCA) that can improve the interoperability in heterogonous environment. ESB provides easy integration of heterogeneous systems. SCA approach provides free language independent for service composition and service transport. Based on our early study [29] and the related work discussed above, there is still limited work that provides comprehensive architectural framework towards a real one-stop e-government. Hence, we propose a hierarchical e-government domain architecture using an easy and a simple approach to ensure interoperability among government services and private services. The approach also helps to reduce redundancy of services and data provided by many agencies. Inter-department service collaboration can also be improved thus it enhances service delivery through a real one-stop e-government portal.

III.

PROPOSED WORK

This study proposes a real one-stop e-government in hierarchical e-government domain structure as a shown in Figure 4. It reflects the structure of federal governm ment hierarchy. The purpose of this structure is to ensure the higgher e-government domain has more authority than its child dom mains to control the process and data.

Figure 5: Logical architectuure of one-stop e-government

Figure 4. Hierarchical structure of e-governm ment domains

For example, Ministry of Education (MOE) ( has more authority to control the process and data about a student and school than Department of Education. Maalaysian Executive Council (MEC), a department under Educaation Ministry has authority data process regarding examinationn but no authority to control student and school data annd process. This organization helps to reduce data and proocess redundancy, mismatch, and privacy and security. Furrthermore, it can improve the interoperability between departm ments. This study derives hierarchical one-sttop e-government architecture. Figure 5 depicts the overall loogical architecture. The architecture has three layers: one-stop e--government portal (EGP), E-government application provider (EGAP), and EGovernment Service Provider (EGSP). A. One-stop E-Government Portal EGP is a one-stop portal for public servicce clients to access e-government services such as submitting school application and renewal of driving licence. Client invvokes government services through portlet. Portlet is e-goverrnment application provided by EGAP. EGP uses Liferay Portal, an open sourcce portal that uses open system technology. It is based on SO OA for integration with various enterprise application such ass CRM, ERP, and enterprise databases. The user-interface side uses u standard JSR168 and JSR-286 Java portlet framework. The T combination of standard portlet and SOA provide integrattion with external services. The portal can consume external portlet p provided by EGAP.

B. E-Government Application Provider EGAP provides servicess through portlet as an egovernment service applicationn (EGSA). EGSA is a complete and independent portlet appllication. EGSA consists of egovernment services (EGS) components. c EGS is composed using SCA Tuscany. EGSA im mplements the business logic in Java or BPEL. EGSA has interrceptor to enforce service policy to control message integrity, security, interoperability, and reliability of services. The innterceptor consists of message logger, authentication, data trannsformation interceptor, and data and process mediator. Exam mples of EGSA are School Application System and Busiiness Registration System. The main role of EGAP is to ensuree integration and interoperability of e-government services. EG GAP is responsible to provide integration between EGP and EGSP. E C. E-government Service Provvider EGSP provides e-governm ment services (EGS) to EGAP. EGSP cannot perform its serviices directly to clients. EGS is a web service, which has implem mentation logic in any language such as PHP, Java, or .Net. EG GS should be fine-grained Web service granularity to ensure interoperability among EGSs. mination certificate verification Examples of EGS are Exam service and student profile seervice. EGSP should use Web service that is based on SOAP or o REST. D. Methodology Overall research study has six main phases. The phases are problem identification, hypothhesis creation, working method definition, resolution, validatioon and verification of solution, result from analysis and concluusion [30]. This paper provides report on the hypothesis creatiion phase. This phase describes the description of the architectuure of e-government system. The architecture is proposes to achhieve higher interoperability of one-stop e-government system. This study identifies the characteristics of one-stop egovernment system based onn literature review study. This study uses the result as input too formulate system architecture. The formulation of the system m architecture adapts Zachman Framework [31], [32]. This work w exploits various open Web technologies and service orientted architecture approaches such

as Web portal, portlet, service component architecture, Web services, and BPEL. Open system technology helps to build standard and interoperable system. This study validates the architecture in a construction of a prototype that creates a simple archetype of the desired application [33]. This prototype provides proof-of-concept and proof-of-technology information. Proof-of-concept is used to validate whether the architecture as design satisfy the requirements. Proof-of-technology is used to validate whether the technology selected to implement the application behaves as expected. As a result, e-Government system engineering can use it as general architecture to support the development of one-stop egovernment that needs seamless interoperability of egovernment services.

IV.

E-GOVERNMENT PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

Figure 6 describes the details of the hierarchical egovernment domain structures in a component diagram. There are five main components of standard Web browser, nationallevel one-stop e-government level, ministry/state e-government portal, service registry, and department level’s service provider. Users can use any standard Web browser to access egovernment services published in a one-stop e-government portal. The portal provides interface between users and service providers through ministry service portal. The ministry service portal acts as a mediator and collaborator for services provided by more than one department. It uses SCA to ease service composition and collaboration. BPEL engine controls service flow and business rules. The ministry portal packages the service as independent and complete portlet application. The EGAP publishes the portlet application in EGP.

Figure 6. One-stop E-Government Component architecture

V.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

The proposed one-stop e-government architecture provides an effective e-government service integration and interoperability based on hierarchical structure of government administration structure. It describes the role of an egovernment service provider, which provides e-government services. Furthermore, it describes e-government service integration among one-stop e-government portal, e-government service mediator, and e-government service provider as well as service interoperability between service providers. The description of the proposed architecture is available in a proofof-concept prototype for validation and verification. Future work includes the implementation of the prototype design and its evaluation. The implementation will provide future researchers with an insight regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed concepts and the chosen design

alternatives. The result will be the input in further enhancement and improvement of e-government design and development. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research is partially supported by Research University Grant, University Sains Malaysia. REFERENCES [1]

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