Example 2: Using the Reference Model as an Analysis Tool (EUDAT)

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Description of the Example

This study case provide an example for ESFRI Environmental Research Infrastructures project managers and architects to use the ENVRI Reference Model as an analysis tool to review an emerging technology, the EUDAT data infrastructure and its service components. Such an analysis can help them better understand the newly developed technologies and decide on how to make use of the generic services provided in their own research infrastructures.

The EU-funded EUDAT project is developing a pan-European data infrastructure supporting multiple research communities. Such a generic data infrastructure is seen as a layer in the overall European scientific e-infrastructure to complement the computing layer (EGI, DEISA, PRACE) and the networking layer (GEANT).

The design activities of EUDAT are driven by use-case-based community requirements EUDAT reviews the approaches and requirements of different communities, such as linguistics (CLARIN), solid earth sciences (EPOS), climate sciences (ENES), environmental sciences (LIFEWATCH), and biological and medical sciences (VPH), identifying common services, and provides computational solutions. Initially, 4 services are provided within EUDAT data infrastructure:

  • Safe replication: which enables communities to replicate datasets -- using the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) as a replication middleware -- within data centre sites, with persistent identifiers automatically assigned to the digital objects in order to keep track of all the replicas;
  • Data staging: which enables easy movement of large amounts of data between EUDAT storage resources and workspace areas on high-performance computing (HPC) systems to be further processed.
  • Metadata Catalogue: which allows researchers to easily access metadata of data (or their collections) stored in EUDAT nodes. EUDAT will also harvest external metadata (which contains pointers to actual data) from stable metadata providers to create a comprehensive joint catalogue that will help researchers to find interesting data objects and collections.
  • Simple Storage: which allows registered users to upload “long tail” data objects (large in number but small in size), and share such objects with other researchers.

We use the concepts developed in the ENVRI Reference Model to analyse the EUDAT data infrastructure and its service components. Only cursory analysis is provided, since the main purpose of the study case is to illustrate the usage of the ENVRI Reference model.

How to Use the Reference Model

Analysis of EUDAT common services and components

The ENVRI Reference Model models an archetypical environmental research infrastructure (RI). As a service infrastructure, EUDAT itself is therefore not an implementation of the Reference Model, but is rather a source of implementations for instances of objects required by any RI implementing the Model.