Spatial Web Standards under development

Socio-technical standards for the Spatial Web are being developed jointly by the IEEE Standards Association and the Spatial Web Foundation. Several types of standards are under development: A socio-technical system standard as IEEE P2874; Implementation standards for HSML, HSTP, and UDG; Policy guidance for Spatial Web Federated Governance; and Domain Architectures for various vertical applications.

IEEE P2874 Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture and Governance Standard.

SWF and IEEE SA are collaborating on a socio-technical governance and system standard for the Spatial Web. The collaboration meets rigorous requirements to become a globally adopted IEEE standard, informed by IEEE’s Ethically-Aligned Design P7000 Series, and focused on Autonomous Intelligent Systems.  The formation of the IEEE P2874 Spatial Web Working Group was deemed a “public imperative.” 

The IEEE P2874 specification defines the scope, key concepts and a reference model for Spatial Web components, services and specifications.  The architecture of the system is portrayed in three viewpoints: Stakeholders, Knowledge, and Distributed Computing.  As a system design specification, it provides design requirements for the standards listed below.

Figure: IEEE P2874 Spatial Web defines a system design composed of 5 components.

1. HSML Implementation Standard

Hyperspace Modelling Language (HSML) is a human- and machine-readable modeling language and semantic data ontology schema that describes entities and their relationships in the Spatial Web. It defines an extensible model for encoding graphs and provides JSON examples. As an implementation standard, it provides testable requirements that enable independent implementations to interoperate.  

2. HSTP Implementation Standard

Hyperspace Transaction Protocol (HSTP) is a protocol designed to underwrite the automated contracting that is required to build a coherent, decentralized, secure, and privacy-respecting Spatial Web. It provides APIs for several distributed computing platforms. As an implementation standard, it provides testable requirements that enable independent implementations to interoperate.

3. Distributed UDG System Specification

The Universal Domain Graph is a distributed metagraph which contains all relationships between all known entities in the Spatial Web. As a system specification, it provides requirements for the updates, search and management across the distributed Spatial Web nodes hosting portions of the overall UDG.

4. Spatial Web Federated Governance

The Spatial Web is an information infrastructure for society. The governance of the Spatial Web will need to address societal and management issues, e.g., privacy, location information, trust, and federated identity. The Governance Policies will implement the SWF Charter and Ethical Principles. As a set of policies, this will define the governance of the across the multiple Spatial Web domains.

5. Domain Architecture Specifications

The Spatial Web is composed of heterogeneous domains. To operate effectively, some vertical communities will define an architecture for their domains, e.g., transportation, manufacturing, energy, etc. As an architecture specification, this will define the concepts relevant to the domain and tailor the Spatial Web system design to meet the requirements of the particular domain.