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Title
SOS VS. WFS – COUPLING 52° NORTH’S SENSOR OBSERVATION SERVICE AND GEOSERVER‘S WEB FEATURE SERVICE
Abstract
The interoperable access to sensor data is an essential requirement for a broad range of applications. For sensor data provider as well as for consumers the question comes up which approach is the best for publishing or consuming.
For allowing an easy exchange of observation data and observed features through a standardized interface the OGC offers two specifications which provide according functionality: the Sensor Observation Service (SOS) and the Web Feature Service (WFS). However, for users who are new to these two standards often the question arises which standard should be used for which purpose.
Within our presentation we will address this question. While the WFS is a general interface for accessing spatial vector data, the SOS has been introduced to provide a specific interface for sensor observations as well as necessary metadata.
The first part of our presentation comprises a comparison of the WFS and SOS specifications pointing out which interface is best suited for which kind of data components related to sensor observations. We propose to use both interfaces when publishing observations - the WFS for providing the geometries of the observed geo-objects (features of interest) like a lake which is observed and the SOS for publishing the observations for the feature and sensor metadata.
The second part of our presentation illustrates an approach for coupling the 52° North SOS with the Geoserver WFS. By combining these two implementations the strengths of both projects are combined in order to improve the functional range with regard to sensor observations and the associated geometries: On the one hand the 52° North SOS offers a sophisticated means for accessing observations and sensor metadata. On the other hand the Geoserver WFS provides a much higher degree of freedom for supporting new feature types that are not available in common SOS implementations.
Authors
Carsten Hollmann - University of Muenster
Christoph Stasch - University of Muenster
Simon Jirka - 52° North GmbH
