Interfaces and Service Gateway Design Document (D5.3)

This deliverable reflects the work carried out in Task 5.3 (Interfaces and Service Gateway). Its aim is to present and specify the internal and external interfaces of the PHAROS system.

The PHAROS system has been designed to mostly rely on Web-based communication for the exchange of information among modules. In this context, this document is essentially a specification of the web services exposed by the PHAROS modules. In summary, these services are:

• Service Platform services: Web Map Service (WMS), Web Coverage Service (WCS), Web Feature Service (WFS), Coverage/Feature publication, Events and Observations, Asset Management, Weather Data and MODIS Service Proxy
• Simulation Services: Invoke Simulation, Simulation Results
• EO Services: MODIS Hotspots, EO Imagery
• DSS Services: Observations Retrieve/Create/Update/Delete, Incident Retrieve/Create/Update, Situation Retrieve/Update, Proposals Retrieve/Create/Update
• Alerting Gateway Services: Message Select, Message Reset, Alert Dispatch, Channel Refresh and Message Filter
• Secondary User Services: WMS/ WCS/ WFS (proxied SP services) and simulation invocation.

For each of the aforementioned services, the following parameters are specified: Service ID, Assumed consumers (peer modules which are expected to consume the service), Data exchanged, Operations/Methods supported, Main parameters, Data representation protocol, Communication protocol, Response (description of expected response) and Notes (if any).

In almost all communication among PHAROS modules, the Service Platform (SP) acts as a central access point (proxy) for all service calls and responses. In other words, all data exchange and all service calls are directed to the SP, which in turn adapts them (if necessary) and redirects them to the respective peer module.

Modules not included in the present deliverable still participate in the PHAROS data exchange, yet they act as clients and they consume services exposed by other modules, i.e. they do not offer any services themselves.

The services described in the present deliverable fully fulfil the internal and external communication and data exchange requirements of the PHAROS system. During the implementation and especially during the integration stage, it is expected that the interface specification will be further elaborated and refined, to eventually form a complete API Reference for the PHAROS services.

The key findings of this deliverable will be used as inputs for the work to be further carried out in T5.3, for the SP/WFE (workflow engine) implementation (T5.1, T5.2) as well as for the development of the interfaces of the modules being implemented in the frame of WP 3 (Situation Assessment, Decision Support and Earth Observation) and WP 4 (Satellite Communication, Navigation and Alerting).