The ISA² Interoperability Test Bed has been selected as the conformance testing solution for CISE.

The Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) is an EU initiative which aims to make European and EU/EEA Member States' maritime surveillance systems interoperable to give all concerned authorities from different sectors access to the classified and unclassified information they need to conduct missions at sea. CISE is meant to bring added value and complementarity to existing systems, processes and data exchanges by enabling a decentralised data sharing network that fosters information exchange and avoids duplication. Participation in CISE is voluntary and does not impact Member State administrative processes nor existing EU legislation.

From a technical perspective, CISE defines a peer-to-peer decentralised network in which authority systems can participate as information providers or consumers, exchanging XML-based messages using push, pull or publish/subscribe communication patterns. The different types of exchange are defined by means of services that capture the nature of exchanged information (e.g. vessel routes, suspicious activities, ...), the messaging model (e.g. push) and an endpoint's role (e.g. provider). Integration in the CISE network can be done either directly in authorities' endpoint systems or via adapter software that connects to CISE nodes, the latter acting as gateways and service registries to facilitate service discovery and secured messaging.

This is where CISE conformance testing comes into play. CISE needs to foresee a platform through which information providers and consumers can register their supported services (i.e. their information exchange capabilities) and test for conformance to the CISE interoperability specifications before joining the operational network. Testing addresses multiple levels, including the payload of individual messages, the expected messaging steps foreseen by each service's model, and the coherence of complete conversations. Based on these needs, CISE's project management and technical staff entered into discussions with the ISA² Interoperability Test Bed's team to evaluate it as CISE's conformance testing solution. This resulted in a proof of concept, developed during August 2019 by the Test Bed team, that implemented a first set of core test scenarios both as a showcase of the Test Bed's capabilities and as a starting point for subsequent work. The proof of concept was successful resulting in CISE adopting the Test Bed as its conformance testing solution and announcing the collaboration in September 2019. The Test Bed's capabilities are considered ideally suited for CISE's testing needs, offering a ready-to-use robust solution that enables both self-service testing for testers and rich monitoring for CISE's management.

In terms of roadmap, the EMSA started in April 2019, and in close collaboration with Member States, the CISE Transitional Phase leading to a fully operational CISE targeted for 2021, building upon the pre-operational network that completed development in March 2019. The Test Bed team will remain a close partner to CISE's management and technical teams throughout this process, providing support and expertise in the realisation of its conformance testing as a key interoperability enabler.

For more information on CISE check out the CISE website, launched in October 2019. If you are new to the Test Bed and are wondering what it could do for you, a good starting point is its value proposition with further resources available on its Joinup site. Be sure to also become a member of the Test Bed's user community to be informed of further updates on CISE and similar conformance testing news.