The BEST acronym summarises the core idea of the project: Achieving the BEnefits of Swim by making smart use of semantic Technologies.
The main objective was to determine how semantic technologies can be used effectively to maximise the benefits of adopting SWIM.
SWIM (System wide information management) is a well-known concept in the ATM world, promising a complete change in the way ATM information is managed, and contributing towards achieving common situational awareness. However, using SWIM does not in itself guarantee the common situational awareness that is the ultimate aim of ATM information management. For that to be achieved, ways need to be found to avoid information overload and ensure that all involved parties receive just the information they need, just when they want it, with appropriate metadata about provenance, freshness etc. Achieving that needs extra support beyond the basic infrastructure provided by the SWIM concept. And that is where semantic technologies can have a role to play. Semantic technologies are not so well-known in ATM, and there is even some scepticism about their applicability, so the project was ambitious in introducing them to this domain.
BEST experimented with various approaches to using semantic technologies for ATM information management, invented some new ones, and produced some tools, conclusions and recommendations.
Technical highlights:
1. AIRM and various data exchange models transformed to an OWL representation, allowing processing by semantic technologies. BEST produced tools to automate the transformation.
2. Compliance validation tool, automating checks of consistency between different models.
3. Modularisation tool, allowing large and complex models (such as AIRM) to be automatically split into smaller, more manageable units. Can have implications for governance.
4. New concept: Semantic Containers. These can be combined with SWIM services to associate meta-data with ATM information, making it easier to find exactly the information required, and to automate its distribution and replication.
5. Analysis of scalability aspects of using semantic technologies.
Benefits of the BEST approach:
1. Understanding of the potential for using semantic technologies in ATM information management
2. Support for filtering and distribution of information using meta-data: easier to find exactly the information you need, exactly where you need it
3. Partial automation of (currently labour-intensive) compliance validation processes
4. Automated modularisation, with potential benefits for governance
5. Understanding of scalability issues
While BEST was primarily a research-oriented project, it was designed to ensure relevance to and suitability for ATM operations, through project activities and the involvement of a Reference Group of key stakeholders.
