System and method for the data management in the interaction between machines

• US 10,324,711 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2016
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eurotech S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Eurotech S.p.A.
• Inventors: Adami, Stefano, Azzoni, Paolo
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US15/549,704
• Publication Number:
  US 20180032327A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 717122, 717168-178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A method and a system for data management in the interaction between machines in a deployed system in which a plurality of devices are made to use a Dataset Semantic Broker (DBS) platform that stores ontologies, wherein the ontologies comprise semantic representation of datasets, the method providing automatic linking of datasets and devices.

Claims

1. A method for data management in the interaction between machines in a deployed system in which a plurality of devices are connected to a Dataset Semantic Broker (DSB) platform that stores ontologies, wherein the ontologies comprise semantic representation and semantic description of concepts of datasets, wherein the semantic description comprises an association to a specific database in which raw data are stored, the raw data not being contained in the DSB but being located in a non-relational database not being a part of the DSB, wherein the association refers to a physical reference to the dataset, selected between an IP address to the database server, a database name and a specific table, the method providing automatic associations between devices and datasets, wherein the association between the devices and datasets is represented by the relation between the device ontologies and dataset ontologies stored in the DSB;

wherein the method comprises the following steps;

i) initiating, by at least one device of the plurality of devices, a request for the dataset, wherein the request is made to the DSB platform and said request comprises the ontology of the requested dataset;

ii) redirecting, by the DSB platform, the request to a Dataset Link Manager (DLM);

iii) identifying, by the DLM, a matching dataset;

iv) notifying, by the DSB platform, the at least one device with the ontology of the matching dataset, wherein said ontology allows the device to access the matching dataset related data;

v) allowing the at least one device to perform an operation by producing or consuming data to or from the ontology of the matching dataset or the matching dataset related data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication between the at least one device and the DSB platform is provided by a communication manager, wherein the communication manager implements one or more of a plurality of protocols to communicate with the at least one device operating in the deployment environment and wherein the communication manager utilizes either a Service Oriented Protocol (SOP) or an Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate with DSB.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein ontologies are datasets ontologies and user ontologies, and wherein user ontologies comprise system ontologies, device ontologies and dataset ontologies related to the user application:

system ontologies describe a system deployment specific to the user while the device ontologies describe different devices being part of the deployed system.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the requesting step comprises:

subscribing, by the at least one device, to user ontologies stored in the DSB;

inserting, by the at least one device, the ontology of a requested dataset into the dataset requests ontology, stored on the DSB platform.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the redirecting step comprises notifying the DLM, by the DSB platform, about the requested dataset by the at least one device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step comprises:

querying, by the DLM, the dataset ontologies stored on a relational database DBMS and identify the matching dataset ontology to the requested dataset;

inserting, by the DLM, said ontology of the matching dataset ontology into user ontology.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said ontology of the matching dataset comprises an association to the database containing the raw data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising an automatically upgrading step comprising:

determining, by the Dataset Semantic Broker (DSB) platform, at least one change in a semantic representation of a dataset to which the at least one device is associated;

notifying, by the DSB platform, the at least one device and a developer of the application program software running on the at least one device about said change in a semantic representation of a dataset;

waiting, by the at least one device, for a new application program software version;

updating, by the developer, the application program software to a new version;

inserting, by the developer, a dataset ontology of the new version of the application program software, into the DSB platform;

notifying, by the DSB platform, the at least one device about availability of the new version of the application program software;

downloading, by the at least one device, the new version of the application program software.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising a dataset virtualization step comprising:

initiating, by at least one device of a plurality of operating devices, a request for a dataset, wherein the request is made to the Dataset Semantic Broker (DSB) platform, and the DSB platform facilitating association of datasets with the devices even if a dataset corresponding to the request is not available in the DSB platform;

analyzing, by a Dataset Virtualizer, existing dataset ontologies, wherein the existing dataset ontologies are stored on the DSB platform;

creating, by the Dataset Virtualizer, a virtual dataset by using at least subsets of the existing dataset ontologies, wherein the virtual dataset is obtainable by direct mapping on subsets of existing datasets or inferred with reasoning algorithms from subsets of existing datasets,

providing, by the DSB platform, the ontology of the virtual dataset to the at least one device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the Dataset Virtualizer uses the semantics representation of the existing dataset ontologies to determine the possibility to create a virtual dataset.