Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
literature, particularly in the EDOC series of conferences or the associated
series of WODPEC workshops.
16.3.1
NASA RASDS
International collaboration on space exploration and the deployment of
space-based data collection platforms has led to a need to share facilities and
resources. As always, this has focused attention on the need for a framework to
promote interoperability, and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Sys-
tems has, as a result, proposed the Reference Architecture for Space Data Sys-
tems [62]. This has subsequently been published by the ISO as ISO 13537 [11].
This architecture is based on the RM-ODP, but with an expanded set of
viewpoints to take into account the special concerns with details of communi-
cation and spacecraft system engineering that arise from the special challenges
of the space environment.
16.3.2
Service-Aware Interoperability Framework
The RM-ODP has recently been used as input to the Health Level 7 (HL7)
standardization efforts. HL7 International is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited
standards development organization with members from over 55 countries,
dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for
the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health informa-
tion. It aims to support clinical practice and the management, delivery and
evaluation of health services.
RM-ODP has been used to provide architectural underpinning to a broad
range of e-health interoperability problems. This part of the HL7 effort is
referred to as the Service-Aware Interoperability Framework (SAIF) [73].
SAIF provides a framework for ensuring interoperability when exchanging
documents, messages and services between health organizations. This consists
of four core subframeworks:
The Information Framework (IF), which defines how the static informa-
tion of importance to a given domain is captured and refined through a
traceable process to yield an implementable or implemented information
artefact.
The Behavioural Framework (BF), which provides a technology-
independent way of describing behaviour in e-health systems. Many
of the concepts from the enterprise and computational languages and
some of the foundational concepts have been adopted within the SAIF
behavioural framework.
The Governance Framework (GF), which provides an abstract gover-
nance model. This can be applied within an interoperability community,
