August 28, 2025: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is pleased to announce the publication of IndoorGML 2.0 Part 1: Conceptual Model Standard. The updated Standard provides a conceptual schema, documented using UML, for the representation and interoperable exchange of indoor navigation network models. A future Part 2 will define an implementation schema of the Geography Markup Language (GML) version 3.2.1.
IndoorGML establishes a common schema for indoor space models and indoor navigation applications. It captures the topology and semantics of indoor spaces, which are key elements for constructing navigation networks, and defines a minimum set of generic, unified modelling concepts for indoor environments, including:
- Spaces and space subdivision contexts
- Geometric and semantic properties of spaces
- Types of connectivity between spaces
- Logical and metric navigation networks, and their relationships
The goal of the OGC IndoorGML Standard is to represent and support interoperable exchange of geoinformation required to build and operate systems that rely on spaces and topological relationships between them such as path computation, sensor coverage, and property accessibility.
Existing standards such as CityGML (OGC, 2012), and IFC (ISO,2018) describe 3D geometry and semantics of building features but are not designed to derive spaces and their topological relationships. The OGC IMDF Community Standard (OGC, 2021) provides a comprehensive model to compute path(s) between features located on a map, but the derived network is application specific. IndoorGML provides a unified and flexible approach to modeling indoor spaces for space-graph-based applications such as indoor navigation.
IndoorGML 2.0 Part 1 consists of two components:
- A core data model to describe topological connectivity and different contexts of indoor space, and
- A data model for navigation in indoor space.
While the core data model, as its name suggests, is the main conceptual model that IndoorGML is built upon, the navigation model extends it to support navigation applications. This illustrates both the practical strength of the core model and how other application extensions could be built around it.
IndoorGML 2.0 updates version 1.0 in both structure and content. First, IndoorGML 2.0 structurally separates the conceptual model from its encodings, allowing XML, JSON, and other formats to be developed as needed by the community. Second, many concepts have been simplified in version 2.0 to facilitate the development of indoor spatial applications. At the same time, the classification of indoor space has been enhanced to enable more flexible and practical applications.
As with any OGC Standard, the OGC IndoorGML 2.0 Part 1: Conceptual Model Standard is free to download and implement.
About OGC
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a membership organization dedicated to using the power of geography and technology to solve problems faced by people and the planet. OGC unlocks value and opportunity for its members through Standards, Innovation, and Collaboration. Our membership represents a diverse and active global community drawn from government, industry, academia, international development agencies, research & scientific organizations, civil society, and advocates.
Visit ogc.org for more information about our work.