Page 15 - U4SSC Data and API requirements for centralized smart city platforms

3 Gap Analysis on data flow standardization

The need for interoperability among the wealth of available data providers, cloud and on premises,
has led to the appearance of various initiatives. Among the most active ones are IDS, Gaia-X and
FIWARE.

3.1 International Data spaces: strategies and choices

“Data spaces” is an initiative to enable the seamless exchange of information among independent
data providers in a secure, self-sovereign and standardized way. As described in the purpose
statement of data spaces (IDS RAM 4.0, 2023):

“The international data spaces (ids) are virtual data spaces leveraging existing standards and
technologies, as well as governance models well-accepted in the data economy, to facilitate secure
and standardized data exchange and data linkage in a trusted business ecosystem. It thereby provides
a basis for creating smart-service scenarios and facilitating innovative cross-company business
processes, while at the same time guaranteeing data sovereignty for data owners.”

A reference architecture has been proposed that provides guidance on the implementation of
such a data space in accordance with the initiative’s goals and values. The reference architecture
is defined in the business, functional, information, process and system layer, the latter is depicted
in the figure below.

Figure 2: IDS System Layer (IDS RAM, 2023)

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