Intelligent Cargo in Efficient and Sustainable Global
Logistics Operations
Workpackage 4: iCargo Ecosystem Infrastructure
WP4 Innovation Agenda
iCargo 1st Review
May 2012
05/12/2012 Avenue de Beaulieu, Brussels
Position and dependencies of WP4
WP4: Aims and Objectives
• The WP4 aims to design and prototype the iCargo
Ecosystem Infrastructure allowing iCargo business
and technical services to interoperate in order to
realise the iCargo business goals
o utilising technologies from semantic Web and ontologies, distributed data and event
management, Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Services (IoS), Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA) and Cloud technologies (Cloud Bus)}.
• Test and deploy the Ecosystem, integrating WP2 and
WP3 components, to support pilots development
and demonstration.
iCargo Ecosystem: What is it
a shared virtual infrastructure (for providing and consuming cargo
services) between different organizations (the iCargo Ecosystem
participants) governed primarily in a distributed manner
channels
Shipment from factory Long haul transport
Road transport
In-city delivery
The iCargo Ecosystem is a ‘parallel universe’ mirroring logistic processes, resources and
data and offering capabilities for co-operative, synchronized and real-time management
of transport resources (i.e. intelligent planning and controlling transport logistics chains)
to optimise efficiency, quality and environmental performance.
5
iCargo Ecosystem: High Level Architecture
Common
iCargo
Services
Registration
&
Configuration
Support
Application
Application
Application
Application
Semantic
mediation
Network of Cooperating
peer to peer
Logistics Nodes
The Ecosystem is set up as
a network of semantically
compatible services
(www.icargoschema.com)
and…‘common and
distributed’ participation /
cooperation rules,
Registration and Common
iCargo Services.
This Hybrid Service Network
is based on loosely
connected, distributed,
compliant, Access Points (>
Semantic Gateways)
exposing Entity Centric
Services or Application
Services for cooperative use
Participants use the
Ecosystem Services to
compose solutions in their
own environment or
residing in the Ecosystem
itself.
6
Logistic chain
composition
External
services
Logistic network
awareness
Emission
monitoring
External
devices
iCargo Applications and services
Access
point
Access
point
Access
point
Semantic
gateway
Semantic
Tooling
iCargo Generic components
Entity repository
WP4
Entity discovery
Service
registry
Distributed
storage
Service
repository
Semantic
repository
Semantic models
e.g. Common
Framework
Hybrid service network
Lifecycle
management
iCargo IT infrastructure
7
Service
provisioning
Service
orchestration
Service
authorisation
Resource
management
Innovation Agenda
Cooperative Services (ICS)
Cloud Infrastructure
Intelligent User support
•entity centric and application services
Access Points > Channels > Semantic
Gateways•Semantic service descriptions
category, purpose, characteristics,
values, rules /semantic repository
•peer to peer connected network of
service registries
•IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service
(virtual machines) ICS deployed
•Common Services - participation
rules for Securely Shared Services
– configuration support - Linked
Data -Data quality
•Cloud Bus that allows services to
talk to each other and to be
composed
•Registration and
Configuration support
•Collaborative Learning
•Intelligent Recommendation
System for SMEs
•Usability monitoring and
management
Common Framework – iCargo domain Ontologies - semantic standard: www.icargoschema.com
“Logistic chain composition”, “Logistic network awareness”, “Emission monitoring” ...
8
Main innovations introduced in
Workpackage 4
Service virtualisation: Business services can be discovered and invoked
(contracted, composed) irrespectively of the physical locations and physical
implementations in the IT systems that host them.
Dynamic service composition: Heterogeneous services can exchange
data with each other and cooperate over a Cloud Bus.
Secure and customised access to services: Channels are used for
secure access to service status and data, according to the nature of the
service (e.g. Cargo status notification updates, CO2, calculators,...) the
service provider and subscriber (e.g. A mobile logistics unit), and the
business model supported (e.g. paid for services)
9
Why should I use the iCargo Cloud?
Because:
• I want to scale up the sharing of my data with my partners without having to
create dedicated connections and interfaces to their systems
• I want to access data from other participants to which I do not have dedicated
connections, to execute queries on large, distributed sets of cargo data
• I want to share and scale up to support many users, the cargo related services
(e.g. CO2 calculations) I provide (free or paid-for)
• I need regular updates to the status of logistics objects without having to
subscribe to multiple web sites/portals or other online (non Cloud) sources
10
Next steps
Current Achievements
High Level architecture (first cut) defined
Major architectural components identified
Existing technologies to be used off-the-shelf identified
Initial work allocation to WP4 participants done
Plans for next 12 months
Define interfaces between components
Detailed design of components
Adjust architecture if necessary in the light of changes in
WPs: 2,3,5:
Implement components from WP2 and WP3
Provide ‘toolkit’ to support development of pilots (WP5)
11
THANK YOU!
Takis Katsoulakos
Bill Karakostas
Inlecom
www.inlecom.com
12
Channels –Access Points – Semantic Gateways
•
•
•
•
•
Channels are the mechanisms with which you supply to or obtain
information from the Cloud
A Channel connects one provider of logistics information to many
consumers (through the Cloud), or one consumer to multiple providers
Same as with real life (TV channels!) there are free and paid-for
channels, as there are high speed and normal speed ones.
How information is transmitted (i.e. by using discrete events or
continuous streams) and the speed of the transmission also varies
depending on the type of channel.
Access Points will be developed as evolution of ‘agents’ in Euridice, EAPs
with profiling regarding messages, and Semantic Gateways
13
iCargo Cloud: Services
• User Services
o entity centric services: information about physical entities
o Application services –WP3
o orchestration services: combination of entity centric services to deliver added value, for
example, to allow Ecosystem participants to compose and coordinate (‘orchestrate’) complex
logistics chains – used by logistics applications such as the iCargo organizer (WP3)
• Infrastructure services
o make the Ecosystem a predictable, auditable, secure, and useful environment for its participants
- Authentication Service /Resources Access Service/Gateway Services / Link / Data Mining
Service /Events Subscription Service /Discovery Service Payment Services
• Services amplification
• To deal with the pragmatic issue that in reality many organisations will use proprietary formats,
technologies and protocols, the Ecosystem’s HSN adopts different mechanisms such as
software virtualisation and semantic technologies.
14
Architectural view
owner
Simple busines
logistics service
description
Composite
business logistics
service
Business
service
description
Domain
ontologies
Sizing
requirements
Infrastructure
Cloud services
(identity, payment
etc)
Service
composer
Other deployed
Cloud services
Simple IT logistics
service
Cloud service configurator
Service deployed on
Cloud
bus
the Cloud
owner
15
Service access
channrel
Service access
channrel
Cloud bus
user
Implementation - iCargo Cloud APIs
iCargo Application Programming Interfaces allow you to publish information
about your logistics chain resources (data, services), or to subscribe to such
resources provided by other participants in the iCargo Ecosystem
• APIs are defined in an implementation independent way, abstracting away the
specific underlying Cloud technologies
• One of the most suitable technologies for this purpose is Representational
State Tranfer (REST)
• Most of the Cloud Storage industry strongly believe that a key capability of a
storage cloud is the REST style Web Services API. Many of the most popular
storage cloud services include or exclusively use REST, including SoftLayer's
CloudLayer, Amazon S3, Nirvanix SDN and Rackspace Cloud Files
Implementation alternatives:
• Use the services of an existing commercial Cloud
• (e.g. Microsoft Azure or Amazon EC2): no iCargo specific API
• Implement core services and APIs on an open source Cloud platform
• Define a generic iCargo Cloud API and map it to specific APIs
• (e.g. language specific such as Apache LibCloud and/or general
• ones defined by OCC, OGF and other standardisation bodies)
Entity centric
register
Secure access
Individual
processing
Single access point
Freight
Management
Objects
Entity centric
Semantic
support
Active & Context awareness
TEP
Transport
Service
Traffic
Management
Objects
Network
CO2 footprint
Order
Flow
TES
Generic Service
Objects
Vehicle
Route
Other Domains
Objects
Engage, cooperate, disengage
Cross-domain service
Semantic
mediation
Obj. Discovery Settlement
Payment
Interaction
Protocols
Ontology Composition
Services
Smart gateways
Search
Sensor
WS
ERP system
LS
eR
SO
VS
P
eR
eR
Secure & single
point of access
eR
K
eR
Cloud
services
Mobile agent
17
A
R
Comm. unit
Roads. unit
Sensor
Pallet Tag
Intelligent Cargo
Objects
KB
SG
Container
Device
Semantic Web
Objects
GPS
Intelligent Vehicle
Objects
Gate
Sensor
Infrastructure
Objects
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Business (driven) vision
1
Technical
vision
2
Interpretation of data
- Semantic
interoperability
- Common Framework
Accessibility of data
- Seamless connectivity
- Controlled & secure
access
Organisation of data
19
- Entity-centric
approach
- Reduction of
complexity
Semantic Gateways
Erik Cornelisse
20
Dependencies with Workpackage 2, 3
WP2 architecture: source: Logica
Application
Smart
Gateways
Semantic
Web
Components
Digital Shadows
(software agents)
Knowledge base
incl. standards
Mobile
resources
User
desktop
Physical
Server
Computing resources
21
Composition
Services
Semantic Web
services
Cloud
resources
•
Physical and logical Persistent Logistic Objects (PLOs)
provided by WP3, as well as from users’ systems and existing
platforms from logistics and related domains.
•
Generic support components, (WP2) that provide the basic
capabilities for PLOs to be searched, combined and engage in
interactions, in a “Logistics cloud” environment.
•
An ontology based on the Common Framework to support
interoperability based on the semantic web approach, by
integrating the knowledge management tools developed by
WP2 in the overall architecture
Cloud Ecosystem
Cloud APIS