GeoRoundtable › Featured Work › Spatial Web Baseline 2025
🛰️ Spatial Web · Year-End Status Baseline

Spatial Web Baseline 2025

Spatial Web system development status at the end of 2025 — a summary of the achievements and the work to be done toward our shared goal of creating an operational Spatial Web.

Baseline Date End of 2025
IEEE Standard IEEE 2874-2025
SWF Standards STD-1 through STD-6
Next Milestone Critical Design Review
← Back to GeoRoundtable home Published as a status baseline · georoundtable.xyz

Introduction to The Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture and Governance — The introduction to The Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture and Governance specification provides an overview of the main ideas in IEEE 2874. The Spatial Web provides interoperability and governance of cyber-physical systems at a global scale, including autonomous devices, applications, spatial content, and operations.

Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture & Governance
Ratified
IEEE Standard
IEEE 2874-2025 Public
IEEE approved (28 May 2025) draft published as IEEE 2874-2025 — establishing the protocol, architecture and governance foundation for the Spatial Web.
SWF SPECIFICATION
SWF STD-1 (v3.3.2)
SWF STD-1:2025 — Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture, and Governance (26 Sep 2025). Describes services, hypergraphs, protocols, and languages enabling interoperable connections between network-connected hardware and software. This SWF document matches the technical content of IEEE 2874-2025.
Spatial Web Implementation Specifications
Document Library
Document Title Version Date Pages PDF
SWF STD-1 Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture, and Governance 3.3.2 26 Sep 2025 203 ↓ PDF
SWF STD-2 Hyperspace Modeling Language (HSML) Implementation Specification 0.2.0 26 Sep 2025 200 ↓ PDF
SWF STD-3 Hyperspace Transaction Protocol (HSTP) Implementation Specification 0.1.0 26 Sep 2025 75 ↓ PDF
SWF STD-4 Spatial Web Identifiers (SWIDs) and SWID Documents Implementation Specification 0.1.0 26 Sep 2025 15 ↓ PDF
SWF STD-5 DID Method for the Spatial Web (did:swid) Implementation Specification 0.1.0 26 Sep 2025 18 ↓ PDF
SWF STD-6 Universal Domain Graph (UDG) Design Specification 0.1 07 Nov 2025 146 ↓ PDF
STD-2 · Modeling Language
Hyperspace Modeling Language (HSML)
SWF STD-2:2025 (0.2.0) — a core compliance target of IEEE 2874. HSML defines a human- and machine-readable semantic modeling language and ontology for the Spatial Web, with a shared vocabulary for Entities, Domains, Agents, Activities, Credentials, Channels, Hyperspaces, and Governance. The Hyperspace Module supports topological, metric, vector, cellular, graph, and datatype spaces, expressed using points, paths, subspaces, tensor products, and functors. Built on RDF 1.1/1.2, RDF-star, OWL 2, SHACL, and JSON-LD 1.1, with HSQL (a SPARQL 1.2-aligned query language) for reasoning over hyperspace relations.
STD-3 · Transaction Protocol
Hyperspace Transaction Protocol (HSTP)
SWF STD-3:2025 (0.1.0) — Implementation specification for HSTP, mapping the IEEE 2874 reference model into concrete clauses developers can build and test against. Defines symmetric messaging, payload encryption, OPERATIONs, core data structures, and protocol bindings (HTTP/2, MQTT). Serves as the basis for HSTP conformance testing.
STD-4 · Identifiers
Spatial Web Identifiers (SWIDs) & SWID Documents
SWF STD-4:2025 (0.1.0) — Defines SWIDs and SWID Documents based on W3C DID Core. All Spatial Web Entities (including Credentials) carry SWIDs; the Spatial Web SWID Registry ensures uniqueness, while most SWIDs are created by a DID Issuer on behalf of the Entity and need not be recorded in any centralized registry.
STD-5 · DID Method
did:swid Method
SWF STD-5:2025 (0.1.0) — Defines did:swid, the DID method for the Spatial Web. Specifies Create/Read/Update/Deactivate operations against the Spatial Web SWID Registry, the registry role under a Designated Authority, and security & privacy considerations.
STD-6 · Universal Domain Graph
UDG Design Specification, v0.1 Ready for technical review
SWF STD-6:2025 (0.1) — The Universal Domain Graph as a medium for collective intelligence in the Spatial Web. Treats UDG as a knowledge graph in which DOMAINS are the primary entity, as a hyperspace with spatially-embedded entities, and as a network of registries with hierarchical domain governance. Derives component requirements that flow back into the Spatial Web engineering effort.
Agent Framework
STD-7 Spatial Web Agent Framework Implementation Specification Draft
Agent Framework working draft, is under development including a Universal Agent Model contributing the foundational treatment of agency.
Implementations
Underway
  • SDK — reference implementation supporting component integration.
  • SWF Demos — Foundation-led demonstrations of standards in operation.
  • UDG skunk works — exploratory prototypes of the Universal Domain Graph.
  • External prototypes — implementations from partner organizations exercising the published specifications.
  • Some implementations are available at https://github.com/Spatial-Web-Foundation.
Roadmap Ahead

What Needs to Be Done

From Critical Design through Initial Operating Capability and into continuous operation — the remaining work to take the Spatial Web from a designed system to an operational one.

Critical Design
Next Phase
Definition of Done
Critical Design Baseline
A critical design baseline is achieved once:
  • all design component designs are initially complete,
  • the expanded set of Spatial Web components is in scope, and
  • multiple prototypes demonstrate the designs.
Milestone Review
Critical Design Review (CDR)
Establishes the plan for Initial Operating Capability (IOC).
Initial Operating Capability
Planned
  • Deployment of all components needed for IOC.
  • Interoperability testing across reference implementations.
  • Pilot demonstrations of application scenarios.
Continuous Operations
Future
Sustained operation, evolution, and governance of the deployed Spatial Web following IOC — including standards maintenance, conformance, and ecosystem support.

Engage with the Spatial Web

Interested in contributing to the Critical Design phase, running an interoperability pilot, or briefing your organization on the year-end baseline? Get in touch.

✉️ percivall@ieee.org