=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Towards a Federated Architecture for Future Supply Chains Systems
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-659/fes2010_submission_7.pdf
|volume=Vol-659
}}
==Towards a Federated Architecture for Future Supply Chains Systems==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-659/fes2010_submission_7.pdf
Towards a Federated Architecture for Future Supply
Chains Systems
Nicolas Pauvre
GS1 France, 2 rue Maurice Hartmann, 92137 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Nicolas.pauvre@gs1fr.org
Abstract. The WINGS project designs federated ONS architectures embedding
Discovery Services to retrieve decentralized data warehouses of manufacturing
goods.
The objective of WINGS is to design, develop and evaluate technical solutions
for managing the ONS in a completely decentralized fashion (Federated
model), interacting with Discovery Services. Architectural approaches and
choices recommended by WINGS will be issued in standards development
process.
The French Research Agency (ANR) [1] supports WINGS in the framework of
the program "Future Networks and Services" (VERSO).
Keywords: EPCglobal, GS1, ONS, DNS, Discovery Services, Governance,
Standards, Supply Chains
1. Introduction
Global supply chains operating in a networked business-to-business world present
tremendous challenges and opportunities for the so-called “Internet of Things”. In
prospect, huge amount of different types of objects connected to seamless and
ubiquitous networks will bring end-to-end visibility to the supply chain. To do so,
interoperability between enterprise information systems is an essential condition, as
outlined in the Global Commerce Initiative’s Report – 2016: The Future Value Chain
[2].
This next phase of supply chain development is already on stage through the
EPCglobal standards and its architecture framework. One of its key standard-based
components is a centralized object directory service called the ONS (Object Naming
Service) [3], which provides a lookup mechanism that enables anyone to find the
address of services, such as traceability repositories. Given the importance of ONS
systems in the near future, the WINGS project [4] aims at developing alternative
solutions to the incumbent architecture. To ensure the further interconnection and
interoperability of multiple roots, the project partners propose to design and evaluate a
federated ONS system that will function in interaction with Discovery Services for
accessing decentralized data warehouses along the supply chain.
2. WINGS for a Federated Architecture and Services
WINGS (Widening Interoperability for Networking Global Supply Chains) will
contribute in the implementation of ambient intelligence in the supply chain with
broadly based and open business enterprise networks. Hence, the project short name
“WINGS” as it will lend wings to the Internet of Things.
Besides the standardization efforts currently in progress, WINGS will contribute in
enhancing solutions and services. Based on the open standard protocol DNS, ONS
enables innovative applications to be dynamically developed on top of various
platforms. As ONS leverages a well-known and available protocol, it will
dramatically reduce development costs for Internet-based applications including – but
not restricted to – business-to-business scenarios. This approach reduces costs for the
brand owners by enabling them to follow a standards-based approach for delivering
messages to their economic partners and customers. The ability of ONS to connect
users to authoritative sources of information about an object will in addition give rise
to a new class of applications offering trusted and value-added information. WINGS
will advance as a result the development of new and innovative products and services.
The extension and improvement of current solutions to other domains originate
some questions about effective management of increasing amount and variety of data
that will be exchanged between partners. In this way, the participants of the FES
workshop will have to react on further developments of scenarios to characterise the
network architecture and infrastructure (definition and implementation), having
regard to imagine the future value chain.
To support various organisations, this increase in scale for the network also
demands the development of an open governance model. Subsequently, this open
governance model can be extended to incorporate various ONS systems from other
parts of the world, both on technical and business aspects that would be administrated
under a common set of rules. Drawing on the GS1 France project to initiate an ONS
root in a European context, the FES workshop will be the opportunity to discuss the
definition of a set of rules for the governance, including for instance standards for
naming issues and the use of security tools such as certificate authority, privacy
management, etc.
Furthermore, the aim of this project is to give the European Community a
leadership role in developing ambient intelligence in the supply chain and thereby
enhancing competitiveness through leadership in implementing broadly-based, open
business enterprise networks. This development represents the important move
onwards from RFID supply chain applications the workshop participants will have to
figure out what it implies.
References
1. French National Research Agency website, http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/Intl
2. Global Commerce Initiative’s Report: “2016 - The Future Value Chain”, May 2008,
http://www.gci-
net.org/gci/content/e29/e1525/e1610/item_d1910/2016_Future_Value_Chain_GCI_Report-
06-11-01-ohne.pdf
3. Object Naming Service (ONS) Standard v1.0.1,
http://www.epcglobalinc.org/standards/ons/ons_1_0_1-standard-20080529.pdf
4. WINGS Project website, http://www.wings-project.fr