Technical Building Blocks
1. Introduction
Technical capabilities are needed to implement data spaces. The objective of the technical building blocks is to identify these capabilities and to provide standard specifications for each of them. This allows data space governance authorities and participants to make technical choices in an informed way. Furthermore, we identify common standards and specifications for most building blocks. Using these standards and specifications makes it easier to reuse technical solutions. It also becomes easier to achieve interoperability on a technical level.
2. Overview of pillars
Technical capabilities are structured according to three pillars (Figure 1):
Data Interoperability: The capabilities needed for data exchange are semantic models, data formats, and interfaces (APIs). This also includes functionalities for provenance and traceability.
Data Sovereignty and Trust: Capabilities needed for identifying participants and assets in a data space, establishing trust and the possibility to define and enforce policies for access & usage control.
Data Value Creation Enablers: Capabilities used to enable value-creation in a data space, e.g. by registering and discovering data offerings or services and providing value-creation services.
Please consult the respective pillar for further details on capabilities, specifications and references to standards and specifications.
3. Key concepts and foundational standards
Data spaces can be built on common technical standards for distributed systems, just like the Internet is based on a small number of common technical standards. In recent years, there has been a process of innovation and convergence: developing new standards, aligning existing ones, and explaining how they can work together. These standards play a role in realising a data space's different capabilities. All data spaces should consider using these standards in their architectures.
Most of these standards play a role in what we call the ‘control plane’, the fabric that connects different organisations, data, and services in the data space, enabling organisations to work together. The control plane implements many capabilities relating to aspects such as identification, the publishing of data and services, and policies for access and usage management. It differs from the ‘data plane’, in which the actual data exchange occurs, but there needs to be an interplay between the two.
4. Services for implementing technical building blocks
These technical building blocks do not relate 1:1 to software:
Technical building blocks provide the scope, specifications and standards for certain technical capabilities needed in a data space.
Services are needed to implement these capabilities. Typically, these are contracted by participants in a data space and provided by a service provider.
Software components are needed to realise those services.
We identify three categories of services:
Some services are needed for individual actors to join a data space. We call these participant agent services.
Other services are needed to facilitate the interplay of participants. We call these federation services.
Value creation services are all other services needed for data space participants to create value out of the exchanged data, such as AI algorithms or visualisation services.
In this section, you can find our categorisation of services and a detailed explanation of each of them.
In the DSSC Toolbox, we collect software components that implement one or more services.
5. Structure of technical building blocks
Building blocks are structured according to the following key sections:
Scope and objectives: Why is this building block included in the Blueprint? What is within the scope?
Capabilities: Which capabilities does this building block provide to data spaces to achieve these objectives?
Specifications: Which specifications should be followed to realise the capabilities? Which standards can or should be used, and how are they governed?
In addition to these core sections, we provide the following content:
Co-creation questions: Which decisions should a data space initiative take within the scope of this building block? This links to the co-creation method.
Implementation: Which categories of services does this building block link to?
Links to other building blocks: For example, business and organisational building blocks.
Future topics: Topics to be addressed in future versions of the blueprint.
Further reading
Glossary: Key terms and definitions for concepts as they are used in this building block. An integrated list of terms and definitions can be found in the glossary.