CIP, having undergone specification and proof of concept phases, is now being implemented for operational catalog interoperability between CEOS members including NASA, ESA, and the European Commission. This paper provides an overview of CIP, including the recent alignment with the GEO profile, and a description of the implementation activities. CIP is both a profile and an extension of Z39.50. CIP is a profile of Z39.50 using messages, attributes and elements in the standard as well as defining CIP-specific attributes and elements. CIP is an extension of Z39.50 through the addition of Collections as a data structure and the addition of an Ordering facility.
Collections are a metadata construct which allows grouping of items with a common theme.
Dynamic Client Configuration Standardization - a mechanism which is used for dynamic client configuration , i.e., to make a client understand which functionality can be invoked at the server side, which attributes are understood, and what are their meanings. These versions of the CEOS documents were aligned with the GEO protocol. By harmonizing the GEO and CIP protocols we have enlarged the information space for users of Geographic Data. CIP is a mature protocol with software available for data providers to become part of a worldwide interoperable catalog system for remote sensed, geographic data. There may be any number of each of the component types within an application.