This document provides a common resource that assists with the interoperability of characteristic data between various industrial data standards, such as the ISO 13399 series, the ISO 13584 series, the ISO 15926 series, the ISO 18101 series, the ISO 22745 series, the IEC 61360 series[23] including the IEC Common Data Dictionary[30] and the IEC 62656 series.[25]

This document specifies a set of resources that enable organizations to use concept dictionaries as the basis for unambiguous exchange of characteristic data.

The following are within the scope of this document:

• fundamental principles for the exchange of characteristic data and for data dictionaries and ontologies;
• a conceptual model for basic entities and types;
• an exchange format for basic entities and types;
• data elements for identification of objects described by a concept dictionary, where those objects include concepts and their associated concept information elements;
• syntax of an identifier of objects described by a concept dictionary;
• rules regarding compatibility of restricted schemas with this document;
• a conceptual model for dictionaries of concepts and their defining terminological data;
• an exchange format for terminological data that can be fetched via a concept dictionary resolution service (CDRS);
• a conceptual model for characteristic data;
• an exchange format for characteristic data;
• a specification of a mechanism to resolve a unique concept identifier to its service provider;
• a specification of an identification scheme and identifier format for retrievable objects in a concept dictionary;
• a specification of a mechanism to retrieve the terminological data associated with a concept and other objects from the concept dictionary terminology reference model, given the identifier of the concept or object;
• a specification of a mechanism to search for concepts and other objects from the concept dictionary terminology reference model, using a set of search patterns and parameters;
• a specification of a mechanism to retrieve the ontological description of a concept, given the identifier of the concept;
• Web Services Definition Language (WSDL)[33] and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)[34] binding of the specified services;
• a query for characteristic data of items that have a given supplier identification;
• a query for supplier identification of items that have a given set of characteristic data;
• a query for characteristic data and supplier identification of items that match a search expression;
• a query to supply missing characteristic data.

The formats in this document provide interoperability between implementations of the ISO 13584 series and the ISO 22745 series. These formats also have more general applicability.

This document serves as a generic resource that can be restricted through implementation profiles by standards that reference it. It can also be implemented without restriction.

The following is outside of the scope of this document:

• rules specific to the ISO 13584 series or the ISO 22745 series.