This paper explores the challenges of constructing a distributed e-business architecture based on the concept of Request Based Virtual OrganiZation (RBVO) and presents a solution based on ebXML, Open Source e-business component framework and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technologies. RBVO is a value network, which is dynamically formed upon demand to meet identified business opportunities.

The architecture proposed in our work incorporates an innovative approach to discovery and matchmaking of business partners and services that includes usage of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology. The increasing maturity of P2P based solutions allow, where applicable, for their implementation in the B2B area. The basic P2P concept fits well with that of highly dynamic Virtual Organizations - to find potential partners and services on demand, to group business entities into communities, to provide added value otherwise unavailable, to assure flexible fail-over scenarios and to increase overall service availability.

The presented work introduces an abstract discovery and matchmaking interface, which can be implemented using both P2P and a more traditional, registry-based approach. Selection of the potential domains of partnership is performed using XML-based meta-data, which describes capabilities of the domains. The particular P2P implementation of interest is Project JXTA. XML-based definitions are used to describe partners' capabilities in order to pre-screen the best candidates to service a client request, using pluggable matchmaking strategies and the data of previous activity. This approach allows maximizing utilization of business partners' resources and increases their competitive advantage.