=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3041/43-48-paper-7
|storemode=property
|title=The Technology and Tools for the Building of Information Exchange Package Based on Semantic Domain Model
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3041/43-48-paper-7.pdf
|volume=Vol-3041
|authors=Yuri Akatkin,Michael Bich,Elena Yasinovskaya,Andrey Shilin
}}
==The Technology and Tools for the Building of Information Exchange Package Based on Semantic Domain Model==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3041/43-48-paper-7.pdf
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
THE TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS FOR THE BUILDING OF
INFORMATION EXCHANGE PACKAGE BASED ON
SEMANTIC DOMAIN MODEL
Yu.M. Akatkin, M.G. Bich, E.D. Yasinovskayaa, A.V. Shilin
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, 36 Stremyanny per., Moscow, 117997, Russia
E-mail: a elena@semanticpro.org
This paper presents the technology developed by the authors with the aim to improve the semantic
interoperability in heterogeneous environment, where the systems use web-services orchestrated by an
object-oriented exchange bus for cross-agency interaction and information sharing. The suggested
solution, including the set of tools, allows to map the models of interacting information systems with a
unified data model (domain otology) on the semantic level during the development of an information
exchange package.
Keywords: Semantic models, Semantic interoperability, Semantic integration, Cross-agency
interaction, Information sharing, Domain data model, Information exchange, NIEM, SDMX,
SOAP, Eclipse Papyrus.
Yuri Akatkin, Michael Bich, Elena Yasinovskaya, Andrey Shilin
Copyright © 2021 for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
43
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
1. Introduction
Heterogeneous environment inherent for information sharing requires the application of
integration methods, which will guarantee the achievement of unambiguous and meaningful
interpretation of data at all levels. Following to the opinion of expert community the authors consider
US National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) [1,2] as one of the most developed and widely
used technologies for information sharing during cross-agency interaction. NIEM is a US national
standard. This model as well as the methods and technologies for its implementation provide full stack
support for developers by using both proprietary software tools (e.g., IBM [1], Oracle1 и Microsoft 2)
and a set of open-source software tools3.
The development of Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) sets the basis for
the application of object-oriented approach in NIEM. The developers build IEPDs by implementing all
the matching elements from NIEM Core or NIEM domains and where applicable, they can extend this
content with new items to meet those information requirements which NIEM does not cover.
Thoroughly elaborated over the past 10 years IEPD building process includes 6 steps [1,1]. There is an
appropriate toolkit for each step of the IEDP development life cycle.
In object-oriented approach the data models providing semantic interoperability for interacting
heterogeneous information systems via are created in compliance with the methods, which include the
analysis of exchange business processes in the domain context. However, the built exchange object
model obtains only those entities that are essential for this specific information exchange as well as
their properties and relationships.
Within the development of the Semantic Web the use of semantic models, actively studied and
tested in practice in ontology engineering [3,4,5], has become the dominant method for solving the
problem of heterogeneous data semantics.
The authors consider significant to release the potential for the convergence of NIEM-type
models, providing data integration on federation principle, with Semantic Web models, supporting
semantic annotation. For example, OMG offers such approach in the initiative called the Semantic
Information Modeling for Federation [6,7]. The research in this direction had been going on for the
last 10 years4, although it has not yet received a wide practical implementation. Nevertheless, the
enrichment of object-oriented data exchange models with semantics promises the fastest achievement
of a new level of semantic interoperability.
2. Methods
The authors represent the technology and tools developed following the methods of software
design and development adopted in Russia, as well as in accordance with the internationally used
Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research (DSRM) [8].
The research of semantic integration methods from the prospective of 8 years’ experience,
presented in several works5, served as the Problem identification and motivation stage, which
highlighted the Objectives for the solution, demonstrated in this paper (Section 3.1). The technological
stack including the development tools represented in Section 3.2 together with the description of
suggested information exchange package (Section 3.3) show the results of Design and development
stage. Section 3.3. demonstrates the use case and application of our solution for cross-agency
information sharing in chemical and biological security domain. It represents the Implementation stage
1
https://blogs.oracle.com/xmlorb/entry/oracle_niem_resources_site_launches,
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/public-sector/niem/index.html
2
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jrspinella/archive/2011/06/20/biztalk-2010-real-world-example-part-1.aspx
3
https://www.niem.gov/tools-catalog
4
https://github.com/ModelDriven/SIMF/tree/master/Presentations
5
https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Yuri-Akatkin-Lab
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Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
and covers Demonstration и Evaluation activities as well. The authors aim to present the technology
and tools to start the discussion during the GRID Conference at Communication stage and use more
opportunities for further implementation. Section 4 summarizes current experience and provides demo
links for detailed instructions and screen shots for everyone who is interested in testing the suggested
solution in real time.
3. Solution
3.1 Problem and Objectives
Based on the current experience in the arrangement of cross-agency interaction and conducted
research (e.g., [9]) the authors consider that at the present time the topical problem in information
sharing is the lack of methods and software tools combining the informative richness of semantic
models, describing the interacting information systems domain, with the power of industrial solutions
for object-oriented data exchange.
To overcome this challenge, the authors suggest the solution aimed to achieve the following
objectives:
● To support mapping of an information system model with the unified data model (domain
model) used for the cross-agency interaction;
● To enrich an object information exchange model (exchange model) with semantic descriptions
by linking its elements with the domain model, supporting integrity and verifiability;
● To generate object domain models from semantic models automatically.
3.2 Components
The developed solution includes four interrelated components [fig. 1].
Figure 1. Component Diagram
Data Model Catalog provides registration, storage and retrieval of object and semantic
models. The authors have implemented Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS)6 extended with
the classes and entities to support and track cross relationships of the assets as well as to use domain
management services for experts’ collaboration [9].
REST7 service provides access to the catalog and its modification. It serves to search an asset
search, gets its description (in JSON8 format) and contents (as files of various formats). Through
transactions the service software ensures the integrity of the catalog when creating a new asset or
saving a modified version of the existing one.
Domain Management component is responsible for joint work of experts on the validation
of exchange models as well as on the domain improvement. The component supports the collaboration
6
https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-adms/
7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer
8
https://www.json.org/
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Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
functions. It provides the set of tools for setting up and executing business processes using various
teamwork functions (task management, commenting, voting, notification, etc.).
External Design Tool serves for the development of exchange models. The authors suggest
using Eclipse Papyrus9 extended with additional plugins: (1) functions for REST service application
and domain import; (2) specially developed Papyrus Architectural Context. This architectural context
includes: (a) UML profile for exchange model development; (b) icon palette and (c) additional
Papyrus plugins. These plugins realize (1) filling special properties of UML classes with IRIs of
domain elements, (2) OCL and programmed model validators, (3) automatic conformity control for
object and semantic models, (4) the domain ontology file containing OWL and the automatically
generated UML domain model. The same IRI in different object models correspond to equal
semantics, and automatic control provides equivalent syntax.
3.3 Information Exchange Package
The authors have primary implemented such approach in the Center of Semantic Integration
(CSI) project [9]. It is important to highlight the difference between the CSI Information Exchange
Package created for cross-agency interaction in our solution and NIEM IEPD.
There are two main features distinguishing the suggested solution:
● The use of semantic technologies during the development and publication of the information
exchange package;
● The additional data fixing the collaboration between developers and domain experts
(comments, recommendations, discussion).
Considering the general logic of NIEM IEPD, CSI Information Exchange Package includes:
● Ontological representation of data model and proposals for its extension;
● Object representation of data model in the format of the tools used for its design;
● Platform-dependent elements simplifying the implementation of the package into applied
information systems;
● Extended package documentation, including semantic annotation for the object models.
3.4 Use case
This use case represents the developed solution in the process of cross-agency interaction in
the chemical and biological security domain regulated by the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian
Federation. The fulfillment of the following tasks demonstrates the capability of suggested technology
and tools:
●
To design information exchange models;
●
To build data exchange schemes using SDMX10;
●
To use the developed schemes for tuning exchange web-services.
Figure 2 represents the contents of CSI Information Exchange Package and the screen shots
from CSI web interfaces [Fig.2].
9
https://www.eclipse.org/papyrus/
10
Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX), https://sdmx.org/
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Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
Figure 2. The Contents of CSI Information Exchange Package
To support the lifecycle of CSI Information Exchange Package the authors consider efficient
to implement NIEM methodology for IEPD building. The main actors are the developers of agency
information system responsible for the information exchange (developers), domain experts, supporting
the development of the unified data model (domain ontology), and domain stewards with the authority
to modify it.
During steps (1) Scenario Planning and (2) Requirements Analysis, the developers use their
own tools, resources and follow the agency regulations. To work with the suggested solution at the
next steps, they get access to web interfaces and download External Design Tool.
At step (3) Mapping and Modeling, a developer: (1) imports the current version of domain
ontology; (2) creates a new UML exchange model; (3) maps this model with the developed
Architecture Context and fills it with typical content, if necessary, or (4) adds his own elements in
UML notation. Thus, the elements of the exchange model will have the link to the domain ontology
entities associated via indicated IRIs.
At step (4), Building and Validating, the developed exchange model gets formal (OCL) and
program (embedded program code) validation. If there is no matching element in the domain ontology,
the tool automatically creates an extension proposal. It indicates both the suggested element and its
place in domain ontology.
At step (5) Assembling and Documenting, the tool assembles the CSI Information Exchange
Package that archives the results of modeling. As described in section 3.3 it includes information
exchange model, extension proposal (if necessary) and supplementary files (UML diagrams, test data,
XSD and WSDL schemas, etc.). The REST service transfers the package to the Data Model Catalog.
At step (6) Publishing and Implementing, domain experts analyze the received package using
Domain Management tools. They check the package and the suggested extension proposals. They can
accept or decline them, as well as suggest matching domain elements or making more precise
mappings. If the extension proposal contains concepts and data still not reflected in the unified data
model, the domain experts can refine or extend it in compliance with the developed information
exchange model. After the approval the domain steward, publishes the package in the catalog for
further reuse. Notification informs the developers about all decisions, package status and domain
ontology updates.
4. Conclusion
Semantic interoperability is the point of great importance for the integration of information
systems in heterogeneous environment of cross-agency interaction. The authors suggest combining the
informative richness of semantic models describing the domain with the power of industrial solutions
for object-oriented data exchange. It is necessary to create the technology and software tools to
implement this approach and to support the developers of interacting information systems.
47
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference "Distributed Computing and Grid Technologies in Science and
Education" (GRID'2021), Dubna, Russia, July 5-9, 2021
This paper demonstrates the solution allowing semantically map the models of interacting
information systems with a unified data model (domain otology) during the development of
information exchange package. Indication of IRIs in the object model allows enriching the formal
representation of the object structure, for example, in the form of an XSD schema, with additional
information. Using the developed models, the special tools can generate exchange interfaces and
automatically adjust semantic web services. Represented solution provides an unambiguous
correspondence between the object and semantic models throughout the development cycle and
ensures the transformation of models, which, in its turn, will serve to implement the semantic service
bus for the arrangement of cross-agency information sharing.
All demo links and detailed instructions for the demonstration of presented solution are
available on http://csi.semanticpro.org/material2021.htm.
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