The ease of payment when purchasing goods and services through the internet is one of the benefits of information technology. However, customers are currently restricted to their payment (credit or debit) cards being matched to a static list of payment services on electronic commerce websites. This reduces the reliability and efficiency of the transaction, when their card issuer is neither available nor on the payment service list. In this paper, a semantic based framework for providing dynamic discovery and selection of electronic payment services is proposed. The semantic based framework uses ontology to integrate all payment components (client, payment agent, card issuer and bank) within the framework by defining all possible relationships that can exist between the components. This definition enables dynamism that helps in selection of the best relationship at the point of payment. The framework will be implemented using client server architecture and evaluated by prospective users. The semantic framework will be of high benefit during payment for goods and services in electronic commerce transactions.

Full text: IJEIR_1140_Final.pdf