RE: Sensor Net work in the OGC Web Services Testbed

As the EM TC is having an increasing focus on the use of and requirements 
for Sensor Nets (Webs) for use in EM, I though the following would be useful 
information. 

 

The OGC has interoperability initiatives that we call Testbeds. In these 
initiatives, "sponsors" express requirements for interoperability and 
"particpants" work with the requirements to either enhance existing OGC 
specifications or develop new interface specifications. These testbeds are rapid 
engineering situations and allow the OGC members to more quickly and effectively 
define and develop interfaces and encodings. 

 

The current OWS-3 testbed (http://www.opengeospatial.org/initiatives/?iid=162 
) has many interoperability threads. One is on Sensor Web Enablement. The 
description is:

 

=====================

OGC Sensor Web Enablement

The Sensor Web subtask will mature the existing set of SWE work items to 
enable the federation of sensors, platforms and management infrastructure into a 
single sensor enterprise. This enterprise will enable the discovery and tasking 
of sensors as well as the delivery of sensor measurements regardless of sensor 
type and controlling organization. The ultimate vision is of a sensor market 
place where users can identify, evaluate, select and request a sensor collection 
regardless of sensor type, platform or owner. 

The OGC Sensor Web Enablement framework has achieved a reasonable 
degree of maturity over the past two OWS interoperability initiatives (OWS-1 and 
OWS-2). At the same time, related efforts have been underway within the IEEE, 
Defense and Homeland Security communities. OWS-3 will integrate these 
complementary activities and develop a framework of standards and design 
patterns for building nationwide sensor networks.

Sponsors of the OWS-3 SWE thread have two primary goals. First of all, the 
sponsors have multiple, independent sensor and sensor support systems. It is 
their desire to integrate these systems allowing users to reach-out, access and 
use any sensor and any system. The second goal is to enable a "plug-and-play" 
sensor framework. There are existing specifications that enable plug-and-play, 
specifically IEEE 1451 and TransducerML. Integration of those specifications 
into the SWE framework would achieve that goal.

  
SWE Information Engineering 
  
SWE Information Engineering will develop a coherent information model or 
  set of integrated information models for distributed sensor environments. The 
  specific activities included in this work item are:

  
    
SensorML/TransducerML/1451 harmonization: Develop, integrate and 
    harmonize information models and schema for SensorML, TransducerML and 
    IEEE-1451. Results of this activity are anticipated to be made part of the 
    SensorML specification. 
    
SensorML/O&M/Earth Imagery Harmonization: Develop, integrate 
    and harmonize information models and schema for SensorML, O&M and those 
    for Earth Imagery (OGC Abstract Specification, Topic 7) and ISO 19130. 
    Results of this activity are anticipated to generate change requests to the 
    related specifications. 
    
Sensor Registry Information Model: Collaborate with Common 
    Architecture (CA) thread to develop a Sensor Registry information model. 
    Develop sensor descriptions for sensor types and instances and publish 
    sensor types and instances to an online instance of Sensor Registry Service 
    (a profile of CSW) established by CA. 
    
Control and Status Messages: In many instances sensors require a 
    period of time to plan for and conduct a measurement. Since web services are 
    inherently stateless, the task-fulfillment process must exist at a higher 
    level than the individual service interfaces. A message-oriented approach 
    allows control and status information to be exchanged in a context that is 
    above the specific implementing service infrastructure. This work item will 
    identify the messages required by a distributed SWE environment and develop 
    the models and schemas for those messages. 

  

  
Sensor Planning Service 
  
The Sensor Planning Service work item will revise and extend the Sensor 
  Planning Service (SPS) specification to accommodate the changes to the 
  information models and business processes developed through the Information 
  Engineering work item. These changes will enable multiple SPS instances to 
  work together in a nationwide sensor network. Particular emphases will be 
  placed on enabling sensor acquisition feasibility and tasking requests as 
  described in Appendix C and implementing the use-cases captured in Appendix 
  D.

  
Sensor Observation Service 
  
Revise and extend the Sensor Observation Service (SOS)[1] specification for enabling access to and exploitation of 
  sensor observations. Particular extensions include support for; TransducerML, 
  IEEE 1451, imagery and in-situ sensors. The Sensor Observation Service will 
  serve as a critical component for constructing hierarchical networks for 
  nationwide sensor webs. 

  
SWE Integration and Demonstration 
  
SWE components will be integrated with other OWS-3 components to build an 
  OWS-3 Geo-Decision Support Demonstration. This capability will be based on the 
  IH4DS BPEL service chaining capability developed in OWS-2. Developers of SWE 
  components are expected to work with the Common Architecture and GeoDSS teams 
  to assure that an integrated BPEL workflow can be 
demonstrated.

Carl Reed, PhD
CTO and Executive Director Specification 
Program
OGC

 

The OGC: Helping the World to Communicate Geographically

 

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