RSM Network ontology, abbreviated to NETW.
Defines railway infrastructure in a timed relation with topology and with infrastructure management.
The network ontology rests on a general parts-and-views ontology, PAVO. PAVO is not specific to any subsystem or technology.
There is no pre-defined containment taxonomy. The implementer are free to choose a railway network breakdown by susbystem, then by area, etc. or the other way round. Any legacy taxonomy can be imported "as is". The taxonomy can alo be that of an ERP. It is possible to have several authoritative taxonomies, simultaneously or consecutively.
The container instances can be set up in such way to optimize the versioning, size, coherence, etc. of data. The present ontology therefore provides maximum freedom in this respect.
The views do not entail any containment relationships. Instead, they point to containers and their contents. Views can be used to define 'subnetworks':
- by intension, e.g. "High Speed Network", "Narrow gauge network"... (using a set of pre-defined technical properties), or
- by extension, e.g. "TEN-T Network" (using a pre-defined list of entries), or
- using a combination of other criteria.
The selection criteria can be mapped to external SKOS concept schemes (not provided).