According to Gaia-X, a Data Space is a federated, open infrastructure for sovereign data sharing based on common policies, rules, and standards. The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) manifesto describes Data Spaces as decentralized, neutral frameworks of protocols and standards that empower participants to engage in trusted data sharing—enabling data to flow freely while ensuring all parties maintain full autonomy over their data.

The Mobility Data Space (MDS) is funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV). It provides the foundation for the secure and sovereign exchange of mobility-related data between its members (companies, organizations, and institutions) while ensuring that members retain full control over their data and its use at all times.

In addition to providing the technical infrastructure, MDS actively supports its members in developing and implementing data-driven use cases.

For more information, please visit our website at https://mobility-dataspace.eu/ If you have any questions or are interested in becoming a member, feel free to contact us via our contact form.

A Connector is a software component used for secure and sovereign data exchange within data spaces. As the dedicated point for data exchange and the enforcement of usage policies, the Connector is the central element of the data space concept. It enables each participant to connect to and interact within the data space according to agreed rules and standards.

The MDS Connector is built on the EDC (Eclipse Dataspace Components) Connector, which implements the Dataspace Protocol Specification.

The Connector-as-a-Service (CaaS) is a data space Connector hosted and operated by a trusted partner of MDS, available exclusively to MDS members. CaaS is designed to simplify access to the data space by removing the need for members to install and maintain a Connector in their own IT environment.

The CaaS is based on the latest operational version of the MDS Connector and includes its full range of functionalities. Currently, each member can use up to 2 CaaS instances free of charge in each environment (Test and Prod). Ordering a CaaS instance is quick and straightforward through the MDS Portal.

The Federated Catalog is a crawling mechanism. It crawls all connectors registered in the MDS to retrieve the metadata of data offers hosted on them. This information is then displayed in the Data Catalogue within the Portal. The Federated Catalog is based on EDC components for its core functionality, while adding specific features using the EDC extensibility mechanism. The Federated Catalog can only retrieve metadata for data offers that have been published for everyone ("publish unrestricted"). Data offers published only to specific connectors ("publish restricted" to "consumer's participant ID") cannot be retrieved by the Federated Catalog; therefore, they will not appear in the Data Catalogue in the Portal.

The Logging House (LH) acts as an intermediary in the data space ecosystem. Connectors can communicate with the logging house via an existing EDC extension. There is a legal obligation for Connectors used in the MDS to use this Logging House extension. The LH logs contract agreements and transactions. This means that the transaction partner, time and description of the asset (metadata) can be traced at the time the contract is signed. Both transaction partners and the MDS as Data Space Authority have access to the log files.

The DAPS is the attribute server that issues OAuth2 access tokens that you need to access the services and data of other Connectors. The protocol enables Connectors to authenticate themselves at the DAPS with their X509 certificate and in return receive an access token with which they can access other Connectors. The requested Connector itself always makes the decision about permitted access, not the DAPS. The DAPS only manages the attributes of the registered Connectors.

The MDS Portal provides essential functionalities for MDS members to manage their ecosystem activities:

• Organization & User Management: Organisation registration, user management, role and right management.
• Connector Management: Register connectors, order Connector-as-a-Service (CaaS), or remove existing connectors.
• Data Catalogue: Browse data offers within MDS.
• Networking: Access the MDS member directory and contact other members.