Based on Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Data Spaces (IDS), MDS wanted to develop an open Maritime Data Exchange and Sharing Ecosystem for secure, robust, efficient and trusted exchange and sharing of ship related data among trusted stakeholders on ship and shore in a federated space of interoperating platforms and ecosystems enabled by the IDS.

The main goal in MDS was to develop a new and open framework for building smarter and more advanced digital services in the maritime domain. MDS wanted to provide secure and unambiguous ownership of data, wherever the data was stored. MDS also wanted to allow anyone with the proper authorization to retrieve data, again independent of location and without specific agreements or manual operations involving the holder of the data. This created a new "digital ecosystem" for the maritime community.

DISTRIBUTED AND OPEN ARCHITECTURE:

The MDS Industrial Data Platform wanted to extend and enhance from the Industrial Data Space (IDS) [1] distributed architecture based on the needs and requirements of the maritime community. MDS wanted to allow the data owner to store different data at different locations, without losing control over the ownership. This allows data exchange also within and between the new and emerging Norwegian initiatives of data sharing and data analytics/machine learning/AI platforms such Veracity (DNV) [2] or Kognifai (Kongsberg Digital) as long as these platforms implement the MDS connector mechanisms.

SHIP DATA AS A NEW PRODUCT:

Using MDS for management and governance of ship data will change the data to be a product in itself. Instead of having data as the result of a process or as an enabler for products and services, data is now viewed as having a user or market value in itself. In combination with mechanisms that allow secure and efficient access to the data, this dramatically increases the possibilities to create and make use of new services for all parties.

SECURE DATA OWNERSHIP AND DATA GOVERNANCE:

In MDS, it will be the owner of the data that determines the terms and conditions of the use of the data. MDS allows parties to enforce their data ownership strategies, independently of where data is stored, but also allows easy access to other parties' data, if the user is authorized to do so. This creates completely new possibilities to do safe and secure comparisons, trending and benchmarking in large data sets, e.g. covering many ships, without infringing on the data owners' interests in keeping some information confidential.

FUNDING AND PARTNERS

The consortium consists of SINTEF, NAVTOR, DNV, Neuron Solution AS and Wilhelmsen Ship Management. 

REFERENCES
www.internationaldataspaces.org/the-principles/#architekturmodell
www.veracity.com/about

Funding

RCN funded IPN
April 2018 to June 2021