HR: 11:20h
AN: U21B-05 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: The Open source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP): A Discipline Neutral Approach to Interoperability on the Internet
AU: * Cornillon, P C
EM: pcornillon@gso.uri.edu
AF: University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AU: Gallagher, J
EM: jgallagher@opendap.org
AF: The Open source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP), 165 Dean Knauss Drive, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AU: Holloway, D
EM: dholloway@gso.uri.edu
AF: University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI 02882 United States
AB: Data access protocols on which many emerging data systems are being based are often tightly coupled with the semantics of the discipline for which the system is being developed. This greatly facilitates interoperability within the data system, but it also generally results in substantial constrains on interoperability with data systems in other disciplines or, for disciplines with a very large range of data types, on interoperability within the discipline itself. In order to build a data access protocol that may be used by a broad range of disciplines, the Open source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) has approached the problem by focusing on the syntax of the data rather than on their semantics. In particular, the OPeNDAP data access protocol consists of a rigid prescription for the syntax of the data and a mechanism for the communication of the data semantics, but no constraint on semantic content. In this way, the protocol becomes a base on which discipline data systems may be layered - the developers of a discipline data system may specify the form in which the semantic information is to be communicated while using syntactic machinery that is common to other discipline data systems. The advantage is two-fold. First, discipline data systems are interoperable at the syntactic level and, often with little additional effort can be made interoperable at the semantic level. Second, a larger group participates in developing the underlying protocol than would if it were useful by only one discipline. A by-product of this approach is that it is also much easier to make ones data accessible via the system than if rigid constraints were placed on semantic content. The result has been the adoption of the protocol for use in oceanographic, meteorological, and solar/terrestrial data systems with OPeNDAP servers now at over 50 institutions worldwide.
UR: http://opendap.org
DE: 9820 Techniques applicable in three or more fields
SC: U
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting