User
Interfaces
We deliver EarthWhere™ with a web-based
interface and an API (Application Programming Interface)
that provides the capability to develop plug-ins for ESRI’s
ArcGIS and other desktop tools.
EarthWhere Server - Image Provisioning
System
The system includes a modular application server that manages
requests from users and provisions data based on their requests.
This layer consists of individual web services that can be
distributed for scalability and redundancy.
Integrated Subsystems
The integrated subsystems include third party applications
such as a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System), a
mapping server, a smart storage subsystem and an image processing
engine.
The EarthWhere™ IPS (Image Provisioning System)
architecture is designed to support a wide range of user environments
from a small department of five users to an enterprise of
thousands. The open environment assures compliance with computing,
mapping, and GIS standards, as well as integration with existing
legacy environments. The application runs on a Linux server
taking advantage of multiple CPU’s and multiple clustered
nodes for high-throughput environments.
Communication Layer
The IPS receives requests from the EarthWhere™
user interface via HTTP, or it can be configured to communicate
via XML, HTTPS, or other protocols.
Business Object Layer
The business object layer controls the logic and workflow
for the various data-provisioning functions. It controls how
data can be accessed through the system and which valid combinations
of imagery and parameters work together to produce accurate
datasets. As the business object layer receives requests,
it brokers data to the various services within the framework.
These services include four components that can be distributed
to various servers in high-throughput environments:
1. File Management Services
The file management service communicates to the smart storage
subsystem to retrieve source imagery.
2. Mapping Services
The mapping service displays data within a mapping user
interface.
3. Image Processing Services
The image processing service collects the "job"
parameters and initiates the image processing requests.
4. Data Services
The data service passes optimized data to the database.
Security - Access Control
EarthWhere™ provides a central location
for managing and provisioning spatial imagery. To achieve
this goal, the application supports the definition of an Access
Control List (ACL) and assigns an ACL to each source data
element. The ACL determines which users can view or process
imagery and provides the ability to support a wide range of
security requirements. EarthWhere™
includes an easy to use data administration tool, which allows
end users to configure data access specific to an organization’s
security policies. In addition to managing the unique security
rules of source imagery, the system provides the capability
to manage the access on derivative data products created from
the source imagery. The derivative imagery inherits the access
policies of the elements used to create the data. For administrators,
this provides an easy method to manage the security and meet
the licensing requirements for commercial imagery. End users
can be assigned one of three access rights for each individual
data source image in the system.
1. Full
The end user can view thumbnails, metadata and view the
location of the imagery on the map PLUS the user can create
output imagery derived from this data source
2. View
The end user can ONLY view thumbnails, metadata and view
the location of the imagery on the map.
3. None
The end user cannot view or provision imagery.
In support of the EarthWhere™ application
framework, the system is delivered with four integrated third
party subsystems.
EarthWhere™ File System &
Sorage
We developed EarthWhere™ to take advantage
of the SANZ tiered-storage methodology to deliver integrated
software, storage, and computing subsystems engineered specifically
for the data provisioning process. Smart Storage provides
an intelligent data movement system designed to automate data
management and retrieval across a storage hierarchy via user-defined
policies. It also provides the lowest total-cost-of-ownership
archive framework for spatial datasets.
The EarthWhere ™ Map Server
For mapping services within the GUI, EarthWhere™
includes the OpenMap™
mapping server, and an Open
Source JavaBeans™ API. EarthWhere™
utilizes OpenMap for displaying standard mapping layers, such
as source elements, and AOIs (Areas of Interest) for navigating
through the application. Users can easily configure the application
to add additional mapping layers in support of specific environments.
The EarthWhere™ Image Processing
Engine
EarthWhere™ utilizes a server-based
image-processing engine that creates the spatial datasets
on-the-fly based on user requirements. The image processing
service is based on the Open
Source Software Image Map (OSSIM) project. The OSSIM project
leverages existing open-source algorithms, tools, and packages
to construct an integrated tool for remote sensing, image-processing,
and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analysis. These server-based
tools are scalable to support multiple CPUs and clustered
nodes for high-throughput environments.
The EarthWhere™ Database
EarthWhere™ utilizes an open source
RDBMS for managing and storing metadata and controlling the
application logic. By default, we deliver the system with
MySQL,
which is open source.
MySQL is the most popular open-source database server in
the world with more than 4 million installations powering
websites, data warehouses, business applications, logging
systems, and more. Customers such as Yahoo! Finance, MP3.com,
Motorola, NASA, Silicon Graphics, and Texas Instruments use
MySQL in mission-critical applications.
For users with an existing RDBMS infrastructure, EarthWhere™
supports standard RDBMS through a networked database connection. |
