Introducing LuciadFusion product tiers
LuciadFusion is Luciad’s server product that unlocks your data and data processing and makes it available to your users in the most easy and optimal way. It provides ready-to-use data management, service configuration, and service applications as well as fully configurable and extensible API components. LuciadFusion is built using LuciadLightspeed’s geospatial components.
LuciadFusion is offered in three product tiers: Essential, Advanced, and Pro. Each product tier combines certain capabilities that are designed for typical use cases. You can find an overview of all tiers with included as well as optional capabilities in Table 1, “Overview table of the LuciadFusion product tiers”.
Starting with V2017.0, the components for LuciadFusion have been rationalized, simplified, and separately packaged.
Functionality | Essential | Advanced | Pro |
---|---|---|---|
Core GIS Engine |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Projection, Datum & Geoid models |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Transformation and Projection Engine |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
4D Cartesian & Geodesic Geometry Model |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Unified Data Model |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Customizable Symbology |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
CPU, GPU Image Processing Engine |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Raster Connectors |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Vector Connectors |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Point Clouds & Reality Meshes |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
OGC Standards |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
OGC Services |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Tiled Services |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Tiling Engine |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Symbology Services |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Data Management & Catalog |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Data Crawling & Metadata harvesting |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Extensible Web Service Platform |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
Advanced GIS Engine |
✖ |
✔ |
✔ |
Real-Time Engine |
✖ |
✔ |
✔ |
Advanced Raster Connectors |
✖ |
✔ |
✔ |
Database Connectors |
✖ |
O |
✔ |
Terrain Analysis Engine |
✖ |
O |
O |
Weather & Environment Standards |
✖ |
O |
O |
Graph & Routing Engine |
✖ |
O |
O |
Radar Connectors |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
Aviation Standards |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
Defense Standards |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
Defense Symbology |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
Infrastructure Standards |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
Maritime Standards |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
S-63 |
✖ |
✖ |
O |
✔ = Feature included |
O = Optional |
✖ = Feature unavailable |
About LuciadFusion Essential
LuciadFusion Essential is the first product tier for LuciadFusion, combining all capabilities needed regardless of the application domain you are working in. It defines a strong entry-level product baseline for serving any geospatial data.
About LuciadFusion Advanced
LuciadFusion Advanced is the second product tier for LuciadFusion, targeted towards advanced applications that may require real-time data feeds, specialized data formats and advanced spatial or geospatial calculations. The Advanced product tier combines a broad set of default geospatial capabilities with access to a number of options.
Components of LuciadFusion Advanced
LuciadFusion Advanced offers access to all components available within LuciadFusion Essential, and adds these components:
About LuciadFusion Pro
LuciadFusion Pro is the third product tier for LuciadFusion, targeted towards very demanding applications, for example in terms of performance, required analytics, or specific data types. The Pro product tier combines a complete set of high-end geospatial capabilities with access to a number of domain-specific options.
Components of LuciadFusion Pro
- LuciadFusion Pro offers access to all components available within LuciadFusion Advanced, and adds these components
Overview of LuciadFusion components
LuciadFusion
LuciadFusion is the Luciad Server solution. Its main elements are LuciadFusion Studio (for easy management and serving of geospatial data), the LuciadFusion Platform, the services hosted by LuciadFusion (including a Tiling Engine) and the Data Connectivity Manager, which is the Tiling Engine Frontend.
LuciadFusion Essential components
Core GIS Engine, Projection, Datum & Geoid models, and Transformation and Projection Engine
These components are LuciadFusion Essential components.
They offer access to and representation of data in any coordinate reference system (geodetic, geocentric, topocentric, grid) and in any projection.
You can perform geodetic calculations, transformations, and ortho-rectification.
You can serve data on-the-fly, and fuse and tile of data in any coordinate reference. LuciadFusion also offers accurate and correct warping of both vector and raster data.
4D Cartesian & Geodesic Geometry Model, and Unified Data Model
These components are LuciadFusion Essential components.
These components relate to data modeling.
Any data format can be supported. You can represent all object geometries and their metadata, and apply any data filter.
The components include support for complex geometries like geo-buffers, arcs and arc bands, and radar coverage volumes.
You can accurately define radar coverage beams and other sensor detection ranges as 3D volumes, and set up geofencing services based on those volumes.
Customizable symbology
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
-
Apply flexible styling (layers, icons, line styles, fill styles, transparency) to your data and customize it using OGC-defined styled layer descriptor/ symbology encoding (SLD/SE) standards through the LuciadFusion Studio. This includes both vector and raster data.
-
Extend SLD or implement and plug in custom layer factories for advanced styling using density plots and heat maps, for example.
-
Include processing in your styling, such as extracting contours from raster data before styling, using fill and line styles.
-
Apply advanced labeling of vector data, including on-path labeling.
CPU, GPU Image Processing Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
-
Experience advanced, high-performance processing and rendering of raster data, including high dynamic range (HDR) and multi-spectral imagery.
-
Apply image processing chains using a complete set of image algebra operators that can be applied to any raster imagery (including weather data and multi-spectral data) before serving the data over OGC services, or before exporting data (for example, to OGC GeoPackage).
-
Accomplish a high-performance, accelerated OpenCL implementation for multi-core servers or GPU-accelerated servers with automatic fallback to a high-performance multithreaded CPU implementation.
Raster and Vector Connectors
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
This component allows you to access data in many vector and raster formats.
The format support integrates with the data-agnostic visualization and analysis capabilities of the Luciad portfolio. If needed, multi-leveling and tiling can be applied.
Adding support for new, custom formats is a straightforward, well-documented process, but most common data formats are already supported.
You can serve through the OGC service protocols.
The following formats are supported:
- Raster data
-
BIL, Bing Maps, BMP, DTED, ESRI TFW and JGW, ETOPO, GeoTIFF and BigTIFF, GIF, JPEG, JPEG2000 (includes an encoder), MapInfo TAB, MBTiles, PNG, PPM, USGS DEM
- Vector data
-
CGM, Collada, ESRI Shape, GeoJSON, MapInfo MIF and MAP, MBTiles, LiDAR LASer and LASZip (LAZ), OpenFlight (3-D), OSGB 3D meshes, SVG, Wavefront OBJ (3-D)
Point Clouds & Reality Meshes
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
This component allows you to connect to and visualize point clouds and reality meshes. Smart loading of 3D Tiles is available, as well as GPU-based visualization.
Furthermore, you can:
-
Stream as OGC 3D tiles or HSPC
-
Serve reality meshes on the fly, directly from the source
The following standards, formats and services are supported:
-
OSGB
-
LAS and LAZ
-
OGC 3D tiles
OGC Services
This is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
It offers servers for several Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) protocols. These are standards for querying and manipulating geospatial data based on various spatial and non-spatial constraints.
You have access to an easy-to-use web frontend to manage data, metadata, styles, products and publish services.
It supports on-the-fly WMTS for any data source as well as WMTS from pre-tiled data sets.
It supports on-the-fly 3D tiles for OSGB mesh data sources, as well as processed LAS/ LAZ data.
Supported OGC services: WMS, WCS, WFS(-T), WMTS, CSW, 3D tiles.
Tiled services
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
-
Serve pre-tiled data via Luciad Tile Services (LTS) for optimal performance. Using LTS, you can send multi-dimensional or elevation data tiles for client-side analysis.
-
Serve pre-tiled point cloud data as OCG 3D tiles or HSPC.
Tiling Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
The Tiling Engine allows you to process raw data into a hierarchical, tile-based structure. This optimizes access to the data, for the purpose of querying, visualization, and analysis. Using the Tiling Engine, you benefit from fast processing and efficient storage.
Symbology services
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
Use a service to provide full sets of any symbology icons with icon styling specifications. Use the same icons across the system, on the map, and in other UI components.
Integration with military symbology requires the Defense Symbology option of LuciadFusion Pro.
Data management and catalog
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
Centrally organize, manage and serve all your geospatial data and styles from the LuciadFusion Studio web application, regardless of the format of that data, and let clients discover data through an OGC CSW catalog.
Data crawling and metadata harvesting
Discover and aggregate all the geospatial data you have available by crawling your data repositories and automatically collecting and generating the metadata descriptions from the LuciadFusion Studio web application.
Define revisit intervals to automatically update services when data changes — for example, to automatically publish an updated weather forecast or mission plan.
Integrate data crawling and data updates into your own workflow using the REST API.
OGC standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
This component allows you to connect to several OGC web services and read data in several OGC formats.
Standards, formats and services: OGC CSW, GeoPackage, GML, KML, WCS, WFS(-T), WMS, WMTS, OGC Filter 2.0 (Spatial filter capabilities can be enabled from the Advanced GIS Engine listed under Advanced and Pro options), OGC Symbology Encoding (SE), ISO 19115 metadata.
Extensible Web Service Platform
This component is a LuciadFusion Essential component.
Benefit from a fast and reliable service application framework that hosts data publication and analysis services. While it offers several of those services out of the box, developers can easily extend it to offer additional services for the publication and analysis of geospatial data. The platform enables service discovery, load balancing, failover, and security integration.
Dynamically set up services using the REST API.
Integrate custom service types.
LuciadFusion Advanced and LuciadFusion Pro components
Advanced GIS Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro component.
It allows 2D topological calculations on any supported geometry. Those calculations include both binary topology checks and constructive geometry operations (union, difference, intersection). Cartesian, spherical, ellipsoidal, and rhumb shape implementations are included.
Advanced Raster Connectors
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro component.
It bundles a set of raster data connectors. Each of the connectors adds support for an additional format to the product.
The following formats are included:
-
ECW, GeoPDF, GeoSPOT, MrSID, Spot DIMAP, Swiss DHM.
-
GDAL-supported formats including:
-
ARC/Info Binary Grid(AIG), BSB Nautical Chart Format, ARC/Info Export E00 GRID, ENVI HDR Labelled Raster, ERDAS Imagine, ERDAS Imagine Raw, ILWIS Raster Map, Intergraph Raster, PCI Geomatics database File, PCRaster, Sentinel 1 SAR SAFE, Sentinel 2, SAR CEOS, SRTM HGT, GDAL Virtual, ASCII Gridded XYZ.
-
-
360° panoramic imagery formats:
-
E57
-
Leica Pegasus
-
Infrastructure Standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It bundles connectors for CAD (DWG/DXF/DGN) and BIM (IFC/Hexagon Binz/Revit) formats. The DWG data connector adds support for the AutoCAD DWG/DXF format, the DGN data connector for the Bentley Microstation DGN format. With the BIM connectors you can process these formats into OGC 3D Tiles data sets and features models.
It also includes a 3D Tiles Processing Engine for the conversion of 3D meshes (in OBJ format) to OGC 3D Tiles data sets.
-
Import and visualize your computer-aided designs and drafts into LuciadLightspeed to see your design in context.
-
Prepare your 3D meshes for streaming via conversion of OBJ to OGC 3D tiles
-
Formats: Autocad DWG/DXF, Microstation DGN, Hexagon Binz
Database Connectors
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced optional component and a LuciadFusion Pro component.
It provides support for seamlessly integrating geospatial databases into applications. This integration includes data retrieval, modeling, and persistence into the database.
- Supported database formats
-
IBM DB2, Informix Geodetic and Spatial Datablade, OGC GeoPackage, Oracle Locator and Oracle Spatial, PostGIS (PostgreSQL spatial database extension), SAP HANA (Beta), Microsoft SQLServer, SQLite
Graph and Routing Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro optional component.
It offers routing and tracing capabilities, based on any network data, independent of the data format/source. It also includes cross-country routing, which can be applied in the absence of any road network information.
When network information is present, cost functions can be flexibly applied to edges and turns. Cost definitions can be based on any available information. Elements like slope, distance, vegetation or even weather conditions or communication coverage can be taken into account via custom cost functions. Large networks can be partitioned for efficient large-scale routing.
In addition, the GDF data connector adds support for the GDF format for exchanging road network information.
Real-time Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro component.
It supports visualization and replay of radar data, including radar video (Asterix Category 240). For real-time track feeds, a dynamic, continuous label decluttering algorithm is available.
Terrain Analysis Engine
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro optional component.
It offers analysis capabilities that can be applied to any elevation data, independent of the data format/source.
-
Explore elevation data by reading out elevation for selected locations, calculating terrain cross-sections, and marking peaks and low points.
-
Support the operator by applying hypsometrical calculation layers emphasizing slope, slope direction, ridges and valleys, and so on.
-
Calculate visual and sensor coverage with Line-of-Sight calculations and view-shed analysis.
The API offers full control over propagation and visualization, and includes hardware acceleration for Line-of-Sight calculations.
Moreover, the engine can use hardware acceleration for multi-core servers or GPU-accelerated servers supporting OpenCL to reach unparalleled performance for both calculations and visualization.
Weather and Environment Standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Advanced and Pro optional component.
Integrate environmental data and preserve dimensional information when serving straight from the source or pre-tiling and fusing this data.
Supported formats: NetCDF ISC, GRIB V1/V2 weather data (WMO/ICAO Bulletin).
Aviation Standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It offers extensive modeling and ICAO-compliant visualization of aeronautical data, in a format-independent way. All relevant domain objects are provided, such as airspaces, routes, procedures, aerodromes, and navaids.
Supported formats: AIXM (3.3, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.1), ARINC 424, DAFIF(T).
Defense Standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It bundles a set of connectors to formats described by Defense Standards. Each data connector adds support for an additional format.
The following connectors are included: VPF, MGCP, NITF/NSIF, ASRP/USRP/ADRG, BCI, and CADRG/CIB.
Defense Symbology
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It allows you to visualize tactical situations and plans compliant with various military symbology standards. MS2525B/C/D and APP-6A/B/C/D are supported, both for the visualization of given data and for creation/editing. A rich API allows for customization and configuration where needed. The default implementation is fully compliant.
In addition, the NVG data connector adds support for the NVG format for exchanging tactical plans. Using an extensive domain model, data can be read, visualized, edited, and written again.
Maritime Standards
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It offers high-performance support for S-57 and UKHO AML data with correct visualization on ECDIS systems according to the S-52 standard.
The maritime charts can be served via OGC-compliant services.
The API offers much flexibility in filtering the information to be displayed, and supports all required display modes, such as day, night, and dawn.
Radar Connectors
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
Connect to and serve radar data captured in ASTERIX and ASDI formats.
Supported formats: Eurocontrol ASTERIX categories 1, 8, 10, 11, 21, 30, 48, 62, 240 and 244, and ASDI.
S-63
This component is a LuciadFusion Pro optional component.
It extends the Maritime Standards component with support for encrypted S-63 data on ECDIS systems. As a certified IHO OEM, Luciad can guide you not only with decryption, decoding, visualization, and services, but also with information about S-63 data ordering and licensing.
Guidelines for upgrading from a component version of LuciadFusion to a tiered LuciadFusion version
This section helps users of a component-based LuciadFusion version older than V2017 with their upgrade to a tiered LuciadFusion version.
As always, you can consult the release notes for improvements, fixes and upgrade considerations. In addition, we would like to draw your attention to the following:
Simplified distribution
After downloading the product, you will find only one zip file that conveniently bundles all components you have access to within your tier. Inside the .zip file, you will retrieve the directory structure that you are familiar with from previous LuciadFusion releases.
In addition, there will be one zip file per option that you are licensed to. The zip files for the options have names similar to the option names.
New tier components
Starting with LuciadFusion V2017.0, the LuciadFusion components have been re-distributed into LuciadFusion tiers. Even if you did not have access to these components before, you can now benefit from the rich set of capabilities that they add.
For more information about those components, see the Luciad Developer Platform as well as the developer documentation for all components.
New set of LuciadFusion Essential components
The following LuciadLightspeed components are included by default into the LuciadFusion Essential tier:
LuciadFusion, OGC Web Server Suite, OGC CSW Catalog Server, LuciadLightspeed, OGC Web Client Suite, LuciadFusion Client, Bing Maps, SQLite/OGC GeoPackage, LIDAR decoder and KML decoder.
New set of LuciadFusion Advanced components
The following LuciadFusion components are included by default into LuciadFusion Advanced:
LuciadFusion, OGC Web Server Suite, OGC CSW Catalog Server, LuciadLightspeed, OGC Web Client Suite, LuciadFusion Client, Bing Maps, SQLite/OGC GeoPackage, LIDAR decoder, KML decoder, Geometry Calculations, Real-Time and decoders for ECW, GeoPDF, GeoSPOT (spatiocartes), MrSID, Spot DIMAP, Swiss DHM, and finally a GDAL Connector.
Furthermore, the Options may offer you a set of components as well. In the next table, we provide the mapping between LuciadFusion Options and LuciadFusion components.
Advanced Option | Components |
---|---|
Database Connectors |
DB2 Spatial and Geodetic Extender, Informix Spatial Datablade, Informix Geodetic Datablade, Oracle Locator, Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA Database Connector (beta) and Microsoft SQL Server Database Connector |
Terrain Analysis Engine |
Terrain Elevation Analysis (TEA) |
Weather & Environment Standards |
NetCDF ISC, GRIB V1/V2, and BUFR SIGWX weather data |
Graph and Routing Engine |
Networking and Route planning and GDF |
New set of LuciadFusion Pro components
The following LuciadFusion components are included by default into LuciadFusion Pro:
-
LuciadFusion, OGC Web Server Suite, OGC CSW Catalog Server, LuciadLightspeed, OGC Web Client Suite, LuciadFusion Client, Bing Maps, SQLite/OGC GeoPackage, LIDAR decoder, KML decoder, Geometry Calculations, Real-Time.
-
Decoders for ECW, GeoPDF, GeoSPOT (spatiocartes), MrSID, Spot DIMAP, Swiss DHM, and finally, a GDAL Connector.
-
Database connectors for DB2 Spatial and Geodetic Extender, Informix Spatial Datablade, Informix Geodetic Datablade, Oracle Locator, Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA Database Connector (beta) and Microsoft SQL Server Database Connector.
Furthermore, the Options may offer you a set of components as well. In the next table, we provide the mapping between LuciadFusion Options and LuciadFusion components.
Pro Option | Components |
---|---|
Terrain Analysis Engine |
Terrain Elevation Analysis (TEA) |
Weather and Environment Standards |
NetCDF ISC, GRIB V1/V2, and BUFR SIGWX weather data |
Graph and Routing Engine |
Networking and Route planning and GDF |
Infrastructure Standards |
AutoCAD DWG, DXF and Microstation DGN |
Radar Connectors |
Eurocontrol Asterix and ASDI/ETMS |
Aviation Standards |
AIS, AIXM, ARINC 424 and DAFIF and DAFIFT |
Defense Standards |
VPF, NITF including JPEG 2000 decoder/NSIF, ASRP/USRP/ADRG, BCI decoder and CADRG/CIB (Note that CADRG is now optional) |
Defense Symbology |
MS (APP-6A/APP-6B/MS2525b/MS2525c) and NVG ISC |
Maritime Standards |
ECDIS |
S-63 |
S-63 |