System Architectures for Data Exchange in a Regional Federated Digital Twin: A Case Study on Birmingham Smart City

This paper reviews system architectures for a data exchange platform designed to accommodate regional Digital Twins (DTs) in a smart city development. The goal is to provide a structured framework for integrating and managing diverse urban data streams within a federated digital twin (FDT) ecosystem. Thus, within a unified platform, a range of DTs will contribute to system-wide coherence by aligning their actions with broader federation goals, while maintaining their individual autonomy. To achieve this, first, we review FDTs and present alternative system architectures for data exchange in a FDT, discussing their advantages and disadvantages. One of the candidates of system architectures for data exchange in a FDT is a layered structure. The other is a composable architecture incorporating interchangeable building blocks, which offers a higher level of flexibility and scalability, but it is more vulnerable in terms of security. Both of these system architectures are particularly suited for large-scale, cloud-based systems facilitating agile development and deployment in complex cyberinfrastructure. Nine common building blocks have been identified to develop a FDT framework. The proof of concept has been implemented using a hybrid layered-composable architecture in Diatomic Azure DT Platform.