WS-Routing is a specification used by participants in a service network to move messages from a source to a destination. WS-Routing is the heart of a SOAP Router, which often acts as an intermediary, passing information between SOAP Routers and to other service network participants.

In many cases, participants other than the router (like a SOAP Server) will also implement the WS-Routing specification. This enables SOAP Services to pipe their output directly to another service (as input).

WS-Routing uses routing tables to determine the path that the message should take. Another protocol, WS-Referral, is used to update those routing tables.