Overview

This template should be used to implement the majority of the services, there might be exceptions that are not known yet.

The following table gives an overview which services are required.

List of Essential Services for the Distributed Data Market Ecosystem

As for all µ-service based architectures it is important to cut the services in a way that on one hand the

size of the service stays maintainable but on the other hand that they are not too simple (too many services).

List of convenience Services

The microservice design approach can be applied to several other critical functions in the ecosystem. Below is a list of additional candidate microservices that should be decoupled for scalability, security, and compliance reasons.

Consent & Privacy Management Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:

✔ User consent management must be isolated for legal compliance.
✔ Ensures that all third-party services respect user privacy settings.
✔ Enables granular access control without modifying core services.

Key Functions:

• Allow users to grant, modify, or revoke consent for data usage.
• Ensure real-time enforcement of privacy settings across distributed instances.
• Notify data-consuming services (OEMs, fleet managers, developers) of consent changes.
• Audit logging for regulatory compliance.
• Asynchronous enforcement (e.g., notifying thousands of API consumers of revocations).

Technology Stack:

• Azure API Management → Secure API access to privacy settings.
• Azure Functions → Handle consent modifications and revocations.
• Azure Event Grid → Notify ecosystem services about changes.
• Azure Cosmos DB → Store user consent logs.

Data Monetization & Billing Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:
✔ Financial transactions require high security & independent scaling.
✔ Payment processing should be separated from API/data logic.
✔ Allows flexibility for different pricing models (subscription, pay-per-use, revenue sharing).

Key Functions:

• Manage pricing models for OEMs, service providers, and data sellers.
• Handle payments & revenue distribution to stakeholders.
• Provide real-time transaction monitoring & reporting.
• Enforce quotas & API rate limits to prevent misuse.

Technology Stack:

• Azure Payment Connector → Securely handle transactions.
• Azure API Management → Enforce API quotas & billing policies.
• Azure Functions → Process transactions asynchronously.
• Azure Cosmos DB → Store transaction logs for auditing.

Global Registry & Node Discovery Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:
✔ The ecosystem is distributed; each instance must register its capabilities.
✔ Ensures discoverability of services and datasets.
✔ Enables automatic synchronization between nodes.

Key Functions:

• Allow OEMs, service providers, and data collectors to register their instance.
• Maintain a real-time directory of available services, APIs, and datasets.
• Facilitate search & discovery of distributed data providers.
• Ensure regional compliance (e.g., only show services in a user’s jurisdiction).

Technology Stack:

• Azure API Management → Enable secure instance registration.
• Azure Cosmos DB → Maintain a global directory of nodes & capabilities.
• Azure Search → Provide fast dataset/service discovery.
• Azure Logic Apps → Automate service registration & synchronization.

Security & Incident Response Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:
✔ Security monitoring must be centralized & scalable across distributed instances.
✔ Provides real-time detection of fraud, breaches, and unauthorized access.
✔ Logs security events separately from user & business logic.

Key Functions:

• Monitor API security logs & unusual behavior (e.g., excessive requests, unauthorized attempts).
• Detect and respond to security incidents (e.g., data breaches, API abuse).
• Provide audit logs for regulatory compliance.
• Enforce automatic security actions (e.g., revoking API keys, locking accounts).

Technology Stack:

• Azure Sentinel → AI-driven security monitoring.
• Azure Monitor & Log Analytics → Store security logs.
• Azure Event Grid → Trigger real-time alerts for security threats.
• Azure Functions → Handle automated security actions.

API Quota & Rate Limiting Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:
✔ API quotas & rate limits must be enforced separately from core services.
✔ Prevents API abuse while ensuring fair usage across different users.
✔ Provides real-time insights into API traffic patterns.

Key Functions:

• Set rate limits per API, per user, or per subscription plan.
• Enforce quota restrictions (e.g., “User X can access 1GB of data per month”).
• Throttle API requests dynamically based on load.
• Provide usage analytics to service providers.

Technology Stack:

• Azure API Management → Enforce rate limits.
• Azure Redis Cache → Store real-time API usage statistics.
• Azure Functions → Handle enforcement of quotas dynamically.
• Azure Monitor → Provide detailed analytics on API usage.

Developer API Registration & Testing Service

Why It Should Be a Microservice:
✔ Allows third-party developers to register and test their APIs before production.
✔ Enables API certification & validation before going live.
✔ Reduces dependency on core production services.

Key Functions:

• Provide a self-service portal for developers to register new APIs.
• Offer sandbox environments for testing API integrations.
• Run automated security & compliance checks on new API submissions.
• Handle versioning & approval workflows before deployment.

Technology Stack:

• Azure API Management → Manage API registrations.
• Azure DevOps Pipelines → Automate API validation.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) → Provide sandbox environments.
• Azure Monitor → Track API test logs.

Summary: Key Microservices That Should Be Encapsulated

Workflows

A concept called orchestration makes out of the services a workflow. For example, if a user from the type of a 

data collector is onboarding the orchestrator will ask to onboard a data source as well. These workflows

will be described in here.