FedEO Architecture

The FedEO Architecture is described following the slightly modified RM-ODP approach. It is described from the Enterprise, Information, Service, Engineering and Technology Viewpoint as described shortly further below. The full description of the architecture can be found in Annex B of the Call for Participation, available online here.

Enterprise Viewpoint

The Enterprise Viewpoint is concerned with the business activities of the subject federated earth observation environment. One example (that plays a major role in this pilot) is the SSE, the Service Support Environment. The SSE offers services for both types of users: To end-users making use of all services registered at SSE, and to service provider users using the SSE to register their services. SSE implements a one-stop portal, offering EO data and EO products that can be used or referenced from distinct portals for individuel user communities.

Information Viewpoint

The Information Viewpoint specifies the modeling of all categories of information that the proposed architecture deals with, including their thematic, spatial temporal characteristics as well as their metadata. The FedEO pilot makes use of a number of information models in order to achieve maximum interoperability. The information viewpoint clearly defines or references the definitions of the building blocks, as there are Feature-, Coverages-, and Metadata models. Metadata and data models are implemented using XML Schema. The following figure illustrates various schema models used in EO.

Service Viewpoint

The Service Viewpoint replaces the Computational Viewpoint as described in the RM-ODP. It specifies the services that support the syntactical and semantic interoperability between the high-level operational services waited for the FedEO pilot. The services targeted in the FedEO pilot shall cover the following aspects:

• Collection and Service Discovery
• Catalogue Service
• Satellite Programming
• Product Order
• Online Data Access
• Satellite Multicast Service
• Identity (user) management
• Service Orchestration
• Processing Services
• Orthorectification and re-projection services

Engineering Viewpoint

The Engineering Viewpoint specifices the mapping of the service specifications and information models as defined in the previous viewpoints to the chosen infrastructure. The FedEO pilot will make use of the Service Support Environment installation at ESA. Furhter information about the environment can be found here.

Technology Viewpoint

The Technology Viewpoint specifies technological choices and related standards as used within the FedEO pilot.