Image Access Solutions (IAS) Standards Based Architecture

Standards Based Architecture for Imagery Compression and Delivery

Introduction

IAS is a commercial off the shelf (COTS) software implementation that provides high performance imagery compression and streaming capabilities that deliver multi- gigabyte images to the field in seconds, even over limited bandwidths. Because the software is compatible with many existing imagery sources, it is easy to ingest data for compression and delivery. IAS is based on the JPEG 2000 industry standard, so any viewer that supports JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) can access imagery from an IAS server. Additionally, IAS provides an extensive suite of web services that support open, scalable business processes.

This paper will highlight the standards based approach used within the IAS implementation.

IAS Standards Based Approach

IAS leverages the wavelet compression and file format technology behind the JPEG 2000 standard. JPEG 2000 was developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG 2000 is the next-generation, international imagery compression standard (ISO/ IEC 15444) for distributed computing environments. JPEG 2000 applies a wavelet transform during imagery compression, enabling new, more efficient ways to store, disseminate, and visualize imagery data. JPEG 2000 offers extremely flexible lossy and lossless compression, which makes it useful for tailoring compression profiles to meet data storage and image quality requirements. NITF (The National Imagery Transmission Format) has adopted the JPEG standard for imagery compression, and IAS offers JITC (Joint Operability Test Command) certified NITF support. NITF formatted data with JPEG 2000 compression offers both excellent compression and quality as well as support for geospatial metadata critical to meeting DoD and Intelligence Community requirements.

Part 9 of the JPEG 2000 standard (ISO/IEC 1544-9) describes the JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) for transport / streaming of imagery. IAS implements this standard to allow client side access and incremental decoding of imagery. This technology enables a remote user to nearly instantaneously access and visualize desired image data. Any client application that supports Part 9 of the JPEG 2000 standard can access data from an IAS server. In addition to selecting imagery, viewers can receive metadata in many industry standard formats including XML, GeoJP2, GMLJP2, SensorML, and KML which can be static in the JPEG 2000 family of files or associated with the image from a client request.

The JPEG standard does not define a standard approach for streaming metadata during JPIP streaming. The standards mentioned above have been adopted by industry by streaming the metadata in these standard formats in the “user defined” sections of the JPEG 2000 format. VIS has implemented, and makes freely available, a mapping from the NITF metadata into XML to be streamed to clients. Many companies have chosen to implement readers and writers for this VIS reference implementation.

IAS Standards Based Services for Hosting and Managing Services

IAS offers additional standards based services as part of the Enterprise version of the COTS software package. Enterprise IAS is implemented as a Web Services Platform which enables open, scalable business processes by coordinating and hosting multiple, readily deployable services that can be used within Enterprise systems to access the IAS industry standard technologies for image compression, management, and delivery.

• Web Registry: The Web Registry manages and organizes imagery and metadata enabling ready image discovery and indexing across the enterprise. Enterprise implementations interface to the registry through a lightweight, REST / Atompub based approach (IETF proposed standard).

• Message Manager>: The Message Manger coordinates incoming work orders from the enterprise and executes and monitors Enterprise IAS services using the robust, Java Message Service (JMS).

• Standards Based Administration: Authentication, clustering, load balancing, failover, bandwidth control, proxying, and user administration are all handled by the controller or application server already in use. Enterprise IAS can be used with any Java EE compliant application server and already supports JBOSS, WebLogic, and Glassfish. Existing, centralized services can be leveraged in an Enterprise IAS deployment.

IAS Standards Based Services for Working with NITF/ JPEG 2000 Data

IAS offers seamless integration into existing enterprise architectures. Because it is based on industry standards, Enterprise IAS services can be easily integrated into existing business processes.

The following Enterprise Web Services are included with Enterprise IAS for managing and accessing NITF and JPEG 2000 data:

• JPEG 2000 Compression Service: The JPEG 2000 Compression Service uses the JITC Certified ENVI engine to compress most image formats into NITF JPEG 2000 files.

• JPIP Streaming Service: The JPIP Streaming Service provides image streaming using the JPIP protocol over an encrypted or unencrypted connection enabling on-the-fly metadata discovery to insert geospatial and other ancillary data into the JPIP stream.

• OpenGIS Web Coverage Service (WCS): The Web Coverage Service enables a non-JPIP enabled client to request coverages from raw data within a given file. This service uses the JITC-certified ENVI engine to create a compliant NITF or GeoTIFF image.

• OpenGIS Web Mapping Service (WMS): The Web Mapping Service enables a non-JPIP enabled client to request an image from processed data within a given file.

• NPJE to EPJE Transcoder Service: The NPJE to EPJE Transcoder Service provides high performance transcoding between NPJE and EPJE profiles without decompressing thereby ensuring the integrity of the data.

Summary

IAS offers the following benefits:

• JPIP Streaming provides dramatically reduced time to access large images even when communications bandwidth is constrained, allowing users to make critical decisions faster
• JPEG 2000 standards deliver improved image quality at higher compression ratios
• Standard compression formats support reduced storage requirements and associated storage costs
• Standards-compliant architecture allows integrators to leverage existing services and infrastructure
• Open and flexible architecture provides compatibility with existing imagery sources

The fact that IAS is standards based removes limitations in integration and flexibility that would exist with proprietary solutions.

For more information contact your representative at: info@exelisvis.com