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How these layers fit together
Field data work usually needs more than one standard. Observation vocabularies name the
reading; quantity vocabularies fix the unit; domain schemas name wells and facilities;
industrial protocols move the bits; provenance and credentials say who stands behind a
published view. See also
field measurement,
field connectivity, and the
Discovery process.
Practical kernel: SOSA + QUDT for the reading;
OSDU / Energistics / PPDM for the asset;
OPC UA · MQTT · Modbus (or LPWAN / mesh) for the hop;
schema.org + PROV / VC / Content Credentials for the office release.
Linked observation & IoT vocabularies
| Standard |
Role |
| SOSA / SSN (W3C) |
Sensor, Observation, Sample, Actuator — core linked pattern for who measured what property of which feature, with result and time. |
| OGC O&M / OMS |
Observations & Measurements conceptual model; aligned with SOSA for geospatial and environmental sensing. |
| OGC SensorML |
Describe sensors, systems, and processes (capabilities, calibration, composition). |
| OGC SensorThings API |
REST/IoT-facing access to observations and things; practical bridge from devices to open observation models. |
| QUDT |
Quantities, units, dimensions, and types — so psi, Pa, °API, m³/d, mole % stay comparable across systems. |
| schema.org Observation / PropertyValue / QuantitativeValue |
Thinner web-facing types for office pages and search; weaker industrial fidelity than SOSA + QUDT. |
Oil & gas / energy domain
| Standard |
Role |
| OSDU (The Open Group) |
Industry data-platform schemas for wells, facilities, and subsurface/energy data products; RDF/OWL mappings exist for graph use. |
| Energistics WITSML |
Wellbore drilling and well data interchange — including well logs (curves, log headers, trajectory, mud log), alongside drilling and well objects (XML-first; often mapped into OSDU or graphs). |
| LAS / DLIS (and related log file conventions) |
Common digital well-log file formats used for curve delivery and archive; typically bridged into WITSML/OSDU or office views with wellbore and run identity preserved. |
| Energistics PRODML |
Production reporting and related production / oil data exchange. |
| Energistics RESQML |
Reservoir earth-model and related subsurface interchange. |
| PPDM (e.g. What is a Well? / Facility?) |
Shared business definitions for wells and facilities — naming consistency more than a full RDF stack. |
| ISO 15926 |
Process-plant / lifecycle reference data for facilities integration (heavyweight; common in plant information models). |
Land management, GIS & geospatial
| Standard / service |
Role |
| PPDM land / well / facility concepts |
Shared business naming for wells, facilities, and land-related entities used across land and ops systems. |
| OSDU spatial / well / facility types |
Platform schemas that can carry well and facility locations alongside subsurface and production data products. |
| OGC WMS / WMTS |
Map image services for lease, tract, well, and infrastructure overlays in office and field viewers. |
| OGC WFS / OGC API — Features |
Queryable vector features (polygons, points, lines) for land parcels, ROWs, and well spots — GIS services for extract and integrate. |
| GeoSPARQL / WGS84 / CRS registries |
Linked geometry and coordinate reference so “where” is unambiguous across systems. |
| GeoJSON / ISO 19115 metadata |
Lightweight feature exchange and dataset lineage/metadata for published GIS layers. |
| ISO 19156 (OGC O&M) |
Geographic information — Observations and measurements when sensor samples are spatially referenced. |
| WaterML / GroundwaterML (OGC) |
Hydrologic and groundwater time series and related water observations. |
| SWEET and related env ontologies |
Broader environmental science terms when HSE and ambient context matter. |
Industrial & field transport layers
These move payloads; they do not by themselves guarantee shared meaning in the office.
Pair them with observation and domain vocabularies above.
| Layer / standard |
Role |
| OPC UA |
Industrial information models and secure access; companion specs for equipment classes; common plant/edge bridge. |
| MQTT (+ Sparkplug in many fleets) |
Pub/sub transport for telemetry and events; Sparkplug adds topic/payload conventions for industrial devices. |
| Modbus (TCP / RTU) |
Widespread register-level exchange with meters, PLCs, and legacy field devices. |
| IEC 61850 |
Power-system and related substation automation models (when facilities include electrical scope). |
| Bluetooth / BLE |
Near-field pairing, commission, and local readout when WAN is absent. |
| NFC |
Tap identity for assets, credentials, or job context. |
| Wi‑Fi / Ethernet |
Local high-bandwidth LAN for cameras, tablets, and edge PCs. |
| LoRa / LoRaWAN |
LPWAN for low-power, long-range sensor uplinks; LoRaWAN adds join, network server, and device identity roles. |
| Cellular (LTE / 5G / LTE-M / NB-IoT) |
Wide-area backhaul and IoT profiles for battery endpoints and gateways. |
| Satellite IoT / VSAT-class links |
Blind-spot and remote-pad backhaul; high latency, strict payload discipline. |
| Mesh / delay-tolerant stacks (e.g. Reticulum-class) |
Multi-hop and intermittent delivery with cryptographic destinations when infrastructure is thin or contested. |
| HTTPS / REST APIs |
Office and cloud interchange; often the last hop into ERP, portals, and analytics. |
Identity, time, provenance & audit
| Standard |
Role |
| schema.org Person / Organization |
Named agents on published office views and engagement artifacts. |
| W3C Verifiable Credentials |
Portable, cryptographically verifiable claims about identity or attestations. |
| C2PA / Content Credentials |
Signed content provenance for releases and media; inspectable “who published what bytes.” |
| PROV-O (W3C) |
Provenance graphs: what was generated by whom, using which sources. |
| XML Schema dateTime / OWL-Time |
Trusted timestamps and richer temporal relations when needed. |
| JSON-LD (W3C) |
Linked-data encoding that lets vocabularies above travel as ordinary web documents. |
Quick map by need
| Need |
Common open choice |
| Reading event |
SOSA Observation (+ OGC O&M / SensorThings where geospatial IoT applies) |
| Unit / quantity |
QUDT |
| Well / facility / log / land type |
OSDU (+ PPDM naming); WITSML log objects; LAS/DLIS; lease/tract identity |
| Pipeline / midstream |
Segment and station IDs; batch; integrity stationing; corridor GIS (see pipeline data) |
| GIS / map services |
OGC WMS/WMTS, WFS / OGC API — Features, GeoSPARQL, GeoJSON |
| Ops / production / log interchange |
WITSML / PRODML or OPC UA / MQTT |
| Field radio / backhaul |
BLE · NFC · Wi‑Fi · LoRaWAN · cellular · satellite · mesh |
| Office web view |
schema.org + signed object |
| Provenance |
PROV-O / Verifiable Credentials / C2PA-shaped claims |
How we use this list
We do not prescribe one stack for every site. In
Discovery we match requirement needs to the thinnest
workable set of these standards — then keep plant control where it belongs. Related:
LDUX and SCADA and
field to verifiable view.