ACE Optimization Services (OS)

Optimization Services is standard-based framework for XML-based, service-oriented, optimization-centered distributed architecture. It is intended to be an open source COmputation INfrasructure (COIN) for Operations Research (OR) and host OR Tools as Web services. The Optimization Services framework provides a foundation upon which OR applications, software, and libraries are built.

Optimization Services is a unified framework for the new generation distributed optimization systems, mainly optimization over the Internet. The phrase “new generation” emphasizes the fact that Optimization Services is a state-of-the-art design and is not adapted from any existing system. It also suggests that the OS framework fits well in the general picture of the “Future of Computing.”

ACE Optimization Services is an implementation of such a standard framework with extensive features (snapshot of system architecture below). ACE is fully OS-Compatible. ACE-OS can be used to host both open source and commercial OR tools.

In analogy and summary, ACE Optimization Services is:

• Both a n Optimization "Internet" and "Intranet", with solvers being "Web pages", registries being "search engines", modeling language environments or customized GUIs being "Web browsers", etc.
• A professional computation infrastructure implementation for Operations Research with which researchers and practitioners can put up their own algorithmic codes as Web services.
• The new-generation NEOS (Network Enabled Optimization System), only that there is not only a central server for centralized systems but also a registry for decentralized systems.
• A standard computational utility service, with which modelers write the models and get the results without knowing anything about how and where they are solved.

By using distributed computing technologies such as XML and Web services, we envision the Optimization Services approach as the next step in the evolution of optimization technologies. By using Optimization Services Protocols, ACE Optimization Services technologies enable OR software to integrate with partners and clients in a fashion that is loosely coupled, simple, and platform-independent.