Assessing the Dependability of SOAP RPC-Based Web Services by Fault Injection

This paper presents our research on devising a dependability assessment method for SOAP-based Web Services using network level fault injection. We compare existing DCE middleware dependability testing research with the requirements of testing SOAP RPC-based applications and derive a new method and fault model for testing web services. From this we have implemented an extendable fault injector framework and undertaken some proof of concept experiments with a system based around Apache SOAP and Apache Tomcat. We also present results from our initial experiments, which uncovered a discrepancy within our system. We finally detail future research, including plans to adapt this fault injector framework from the stateless environment of a standard web service to the stateful environment of an OGSA service.