NIEM Newsletter
Feature: NIEM and LEXS
By Sudhi Umarji
As readers of NIEM News are aware, the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is the result of a collaborative effort by the justice and homeland security communities to produce a set of common, well-defined data elements to be used as the basis for data exchange development and harmonization. NIEM defines a set of building blocks that are used as a consistent baseline for creating exchange documents and transactions within the federal government and between the federal government and state, local, and tribal organizations.
NIEM was launched on February 28, 2005, as a partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The NIEM framework provides standard vocabulary, guidance, and processes that help promote effective and efficient information sharing capabilities across organizational boundaries.
An Information Exchange Package (IEP) is a NIEM-based XML representation of the information shared to support a specific mission. An Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) is the set of specifications that describe the function and structure of a NIEM information exchange. A NIEM-conformant information exchange is one that is based on an IEPD that follows the rules for NIEM conformance and is registered in one of the established NIEM IEPD repositories.
The goal of NIEM conformance is for the sender and receiver of information to share a common, unambiguous understanding of the meaning of the information being exchanged. Conformance to NIEM ensures that the data being shared (conveyed in common NIEM components and conforming extensions) is well-understood and has consistent meaning across various communities. The result enables a level of interoperability that would be unachievable with a proliferation of custom or program-specific schemas and dictionaries.
LEXS1 (Logical Entity eXchange Specifications) is a family of reusable NIEM IEPDs for many common types of public safety information exchanges, particularly for the publication, update, and federated searching of law enforcement and intelligence data. LEXS is also used within the law enforcement community of DHS. Currently, the Enterprise Architectures of both DOJ and DHS include the use of NIEM and LEXS in the implementation of information exchanges. In particular, the IEPDs for the National Data Exchange (N-DEx) and Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) are based on LEXS.
On April 17, 2008, a memo titled U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) Initial Release of Universal Core (UCore) was distributed, cosigned by their respective CIOs. UCore is a standard approach to representing a few elements of information common to many exchanges in the DoD and IC, specifically the concepts of "where" and "when." Version 2.0 of UCore, currently in pilot testing, was jointly developed by the DoD, IC, DOJ, and DHS and also includes support for simple concepts of "who" and "what."
The involvement of the NIEM program in the requirements, design, and implementation of UCore 2.0 ensured its compatibility with NIEM and LEXS. UCore 2.0 shares the same underlying message structure as LEXS, which creates a substantial functional alignment between the two and allows for greatly simplified translation of messages from one to the other. In addition, UCore 2.0 is largely agnostic with respect to the information exchange vocabularies of various communities. This means that UCore 2.0 messages can supplement the basic UCore "digest" with richer, more detailed information content in the form of NIEM "payloads," governed by NIEM IEPDs.
Although UCore is not mandated by DoD or IC, its use is nonetheless expected to grow among programs in those communities. Existing NIEM users, including DOJ and DHS, may, in the near future, encounter partners who wish to exchange information via UCore. Current NIEM users, who have implemented NIEM and LEXS, will find that producing or consuming UCore messages will take little additional effort.
Additionally, when NIEM users work with DoD and IC counterparts to collaboratively create a new information exchange, the most appropriate standards should be chosen based on the requirements of the exchange and its various participants. Already, some DoD and IC systems have implemented NIEM and LEXS for sharing law enforcement and intelligence information. Similarly, some DOJ and DHS systems will find it valuable to participate in UCore-based exchanges, either natively or via translation. Moreover, many UCore-based exchanges may choose to use NIEM as the most appropriate vocabulary for the detailed payloads that accompany each message.
Regardless, the dynamic among these standards should not be viewed as an either/or choice. Because UCore has been designed to be interoperable with NIEM and LEXS, current NIEM-based systems will not need to deviate from existing implementations to share information via UCore. The NIEM program is fully committed to ensuring that future versions of NIEM and LEXS will be similarly compatible with UCore. Additionally, both DOJ and DHS, through their Enterprise Architecture programs, will ensure that use of UCore 2.0 is permitted based on the requirements of the exchange and its various participants.
Implementation of NIEM-Conformant Exchanges
The specific business context for an exchange is essential for determining whether and how to implement a NIEM-conformant exchange. To aid decision makers, DOJ has developed the following high-level guidelines in the form of a decision flow process and implementation options. This guidance is included below since other implementers might find it helpful in making decisions about which IEPD to use within their own contexts. Four distinct options are listed below for implementing information exchanges between systems when new systems are developed or existing systems are enhanced.
Option 1: Use of LEXS As-Is
LEXS is a family of IEPDs that defines flexible structures developed to support a wide variety of applications. LEXS defines a standard set of high-level entities, roles, associations, and other capabilities which are NIEM-conformant. An exchange implementing LEXS is automatically NIEM-conformant. If additional structures beyond those supported through the base LEXS are required for an exchange, the base LEXS should be extended by using NIEM (Option 2). Examples of Option 1 include LEXS Publish and Discover (PD) (used by DOJ data sources publishing data to the DOJ’s information sharing applications—participants include all OneDOJ2 data sources) and LEXS Search and Retrieval (SR) (used to connect the OneDOJ system with regional and federal information sharing systems in a federated search model.) Other systems that are using LEXS AS-IS to interoperate with OneDOJ include the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Pattern Analysis and Information Collection System (ICEPIC) implemented at DHS and the Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) implemented by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Option 2: Extend LEXS Using NIEM
LEXS provides an extension mechanism to easily include additional structures within base LEXS. This is accomplished by specifying one or more structured payloads that carry additional information beyond that provided through LEXS. These structured payloads are, for all intents and purposes, separate IEPDs that have hooks into the LEXS IEPD. This feature allows LEXS to support very specific exchange requirements while maintaining a level of compatibility across all applications that understand the base LEXS.
These schema extensions should be built using NIEM to ensure NIEM conformance. The NIEM ConOps describes the process to build schemas using the NIEM model and tools such as the NIEM Schema Subset Generation Tool (SSGT). Examples of Option 2 include LEXS-PD with N-DEx Incident Report extension (used by state, local, and federal organizations publishing data to N-DEx) and LEXS-PD with Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) extension (planned to be widely used by state fusion centers collecting data from local agencies and sharing with federal partners).
Option 3: Reuse of Other IEPDs
The Information Exchange Clearinghouse contains a number of IEPDs that have been built by federal, state, local, and tribal agencies and are available for reuse. This option should be considered if the previous options are not sufficient, based on business requirements of the exchange. This option saves development time and cost, but some customization of the schemas may be necessary to meet all business requirements; however, an exchange will not need to be developed completely from scratch. For example, federal and state/local fusion centers are reusing the SAR IEPD. SAR is also an example of Option 2 because it leverages LEXS-PD with NIEM extensions.
Option 4: Develop a New NIEM IEPD
If an existing IEPD is not available for use, then a new IEPD should be developed following the NIEM IEPD development process and using the NIEM model and tools. This option should be selected only after a thorough evaluation of the previous options has been completed. The clearinghouse can also be used as a tool to publish IEPDs and associated artifacts as they are being developed.
About the author: Sudhi Umarji is President of Trusted Federal Systems and a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is also a member of the IJIS Institute Board of Directors and chair of the IJIS Institute Audit Committee. Sudhi can be reached at sudhi@trustedfederal.com.
1LEXS originally stood for LEISP (Law Enforcement Information Sharing Program) Exchange Specification. Additional information on LEXS can be found at http://it.ojp.gov/default.aspx?area=implementationAssistance& page=1017&standard=486.
2DOJ’s system to share criminal law enforcement information internally across investigative components. See http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ocio/leisp/
onedoj.htm.
NIEM Case Study
New York City Health and Human Services (HHS)-CONNECT
Synopsis
ACCESS NYC is an online tool, developed by the New York City (NYC) Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services in collaboration with the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), that allows users to screen for more than 35 city, state, and federal benefit programs, search for office locations, and create prepopulated application forms. Building on the success of ACCESS NYC, the NYC CIO for HHS, under the HHS-Connect program, has begun to implement functionality for New York City residents to apply for benefits online through the same interface. The first online application in production is for the School Meals program. This functionality is dependent on a data exchange between ACCESS NYC and an external system, specifically a third-party vendor the NYC Department of Education uses to process its School Meals paper applications. Although this is the first data exchange to or from ACCESS NYC, the city acknowledges the need for more as additional online applications are built. To satisfy the need for standards and consistency, the city decided to build on the success of Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) in the criminal justice domain and adopt NIEM 2.0-conformant data exchanges for ACCESS NYC and the overall health and human service domain.
Agency Overview
The New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) oversees the city's use of existing and emerging technologies in government operations and its delivery of services to the public. DoITT works to improve the government's efficiency through technology and to make communication with the government straightforward and clear.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer for Health and Human Services reports directly to the NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. This office is responsible for implementing the HHS-Connect Roadmap. The mission of HHS-Connect is to break information silos through the use of modernized technology and coordinated agency practices to more efficiently and effectively provide health and human services to New Yorkers.
Challenge
An overarching theme of HHS-Connect project is to enable information sharing among disparate NYC agencies. A challenge seen in many different HHS-Connect projects is ensuring that previous and potential point-to-point data transfers be implemented such that additional agencies can participate with minimal rework. NIEM made this possible by allowing the same Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) to be used for the transfer between HHS and the Department of Education (DOE), as well as between HHS and the Human Resources Administration (HRA).
Solution
Several schemas were generated to extend the NIEM core schemas. The end users of the online School Meals application are ultimately the parents of the eligible children making application to the program. The parents submit household and income information through the Curam-based application, which is then stored in a relational database. A nightly batch job extracts the data from the database and creates a separate eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document, using the NIEM-compliant exchange schema, for each submitted application. The XML documents are encrypted and securely transmitted to the DOE for processing.
Results
An IEPD was generated to allow the data exchange. This went quite smoothly without any major issues. The School Meals Online Application is available at http://www.nyc.gov/accessnyc. The most significant benefit of using NIEM for this process was the creation of common NIEM extensions that will be used across HHS-Connect projects. This benefit is being realized as the extensions created for the School Meals IEPD are also being utilized in the HHS-Connect Worker Portal IEPD. In addition, a second request for School Meals data from the HRA is being implemented using the School Meals IEPD.
NIEM E-Learning Update
The NIEM Practical Implementer’s (PI) Course is now available in an online format. The e-learning version is designed to instruct students in the same way that classroom participants are taught. The video reviews the same course material as the NIEM PI class and allows time for students to perform all the exercises and review solutions, as is done in the classroom. The online version also allows students to receive completion certificates by submitting case study files to the e-instructor, who is available throughout the duration of the course to answer any questions. For more information or to register, contact training@ijis.org or see www.ncsc.org for course information.
Featured FAQ: What Problem Does NIEM Seek to Solve?
The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) seeks to create an effective information exchange standard to share critical data across domains in support of day-to-day operations and emergency situations. NIEM is designed to develop, disseminate, and support enterprisewide information exchange standards and processes that can enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as to support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation. Information exchange, when performed between two partners, is often bound by technology to that specific scenario. NIEM will provide a framework to ensure that information exchanges are easily reused, adapted, and made available to allow additional partners to engage with minimal redundancy.
NIEM Training News
The IJIS Institute presented the NIEM Practical Implementer’s (PI) Course on December 9–11, 2008, at its headquarters located at the George Washington University campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The training, primarily attended by personnel from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was also attended by employees of the Louisiana Supreme Court, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Arkansas State Police, the Alabama Department of Public Health, Washoe County, Nevada, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Chickasaw Nation, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Anu Rao of iNovate Solutions, an IJIS Institute member, was the lead trainer, while Vipul Patel, Senior IJIS Institute Help Desk Specialist, and Cherie Hayes, IT Specialist at the FBI, were the associate instructors who helped manage and execute exercises and case studies throughout the three-day training. The evaluations revealed satisfaction from all parties, with a 4.06 (out of 5) received on the overall course and a 4.4 on the instructor team. Participant feedback included comments such as "Now I’m ready for a NIEM project" and "Thank you for hosting the course. Excellent instructor, facility and websites." For more information on NIEM training, please contact training@ijis.org.
The above NIEM Practical Implementer’s Courses are funded through grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For more information about the NIEM Technology Training Program, contact training@ijis.org.
Upcoming Events and Training
- January 6–8, 2009: NIEM PI Training, U.S. Courts, Reston, Virginia
- January 14, 2009: NIEM Instructor Webinar: "How to Effectively Execute the NIEM PI Course Case Study"
- February 10–12, 2009: U.S. Coast Guard, Martinsburg, West Virginia
- September 30–October 2, 2009: NIEM National Training Event
