OGC Requests Public Comment on Sensor Web Enablement Specifications

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) invites public comment on several candidate standards developed in the OGC's Sensor Web Enablement initiative. The OGC membership anticipates that these specifications will be adopted as OpenGIS Specifications and that they will become widely used as open, international standards for Web-based registration, discovery, use and control of sensors, sensor systems, and sensor data stores.

Comments are requested by: May 5, 2006

Draft Sensor Model Language (SensorML) Encoding Specification defines general models and XML encodings for sensors and observation processing.
Draft Sensor Observation Service Implementation Specification (SOS) defines a service by which a client can obtain observations from one or more sensors/platforms.

Draft Transducer Markup Language Encoding Specification (TransducerML) defines a set of models describing the hardware response characteristics of a transducer as well as an efficient method for transporting sensor data and preparing it for fusion through spatial and temporal associations.
A fourth specification, Draft Sensor Planning Service Implementation Specification (SPS), will be posted for comment in the near future. SPS defines a service by which a client can determine collection feasibility for a desired set of collection requests for one or more mobile sensors/platforms, or a client may submit collection requests directly to these sensors/platforms.

All four were enhanced in the recent OGC Web Services Phase 3 Interoperability Initiative (OWS -3). The documents are available at www.opengeospatial.org/specs/?page=requests. Comments on the specifications can be submitted to a dedicated email reflector: requests@opengeospatial.org until 5 May 2006. Comments will be collected and considered for integration into the documents before they move forward in the OGC process to become adopted specifications.

Also, the following documents are now publicly available as Discussion Papers at www.opengeospatial.org/specs/?page=discussion. OGC Discussion Papers are being considered in the Working Groups of the Technical Committee, but do not represent the official position of the organisation.

OpenGIS Sensor Web Enablement Architecture Discussion Paper offers design and operational concepts for an architecture built on the above and other draft specifications.

Observation and Measurement Discussion Paper defines general models and XML encodings for observations and measurements made using sensors.

Sensor Alert Service Discussion Paper defines an open interface for a web service for publishing of and subscribing to deliverable alerts from sensor or simulation systems.