Wout Hofman

The Seamless Integrated Data Pipeline system was proposed to the European Union in order to overcome the information quality shortcomings of the current international supply chain information exchange systems. Next to identification and authorization of stakeholders, secure access control needs to be considered at design time of the new data pipeline system. This challenge is taken up in this paper. First, based on an analysis of the proposed data pipeline concept, access control requirements are being defined. Second, a new multi-level access control model is being designed. The resulting model organizes access control at two levels, namely, at country and at service level, herewith enabling secure information exchange between global stakeholders.

he Seamless Integrated Data Pipeline system was proposed to the European Union in order to overcome the information quality shortcomings of the current international supply chain information exchange systems. Next to identification and authorization of stakeholders, secure access control needs to be considered at design time of the new data pipeline system. This challenge is taken up in this paper. First, based on an analysis of the proposed data pipeline concept, access control requirements are being defined. Second, a new multi-level access control model is being designed. The resulting model organizes access control at two levels, namely, at country and at service level, herewith enabling secure information exchange between global stakeholders.

Ten years ago ExSpect became available on the market. Since then a lot of modeling and simulation projects in logistics, workflow and electronic commerce have been performed using ExSpect. In the past ten years the heart of ExSpect, the simulation engine, has never been changed: it still executes models of hierarchical, timed, colored Petri nets with priorities. Over the years new features have been introduced based on user requests. Three extensions dominate the new functionality of ExSpect. The first is 'ease of use'in simulating ...

In the current society, logistics is faced with at least two big challenges. The first challenge considers safety and security measurements dealing with terrorism, smuggling, and related security accidents with a high societal impact. The second challenge is to meet sustainability requirements implying optimal use of resources and physical infrastructure. A condition sine qua non for dealing with these challenges is the realization of a flexible platform for sustainable and secure data exchange between collaborating global supply chain actors. This paper presents such a platform. It allows shippers, authorities, logistic service providers, and carriers to be fully interoperable across closed communities, to perform paperless logistics, and to adhere to societal demands of security, safety, and sustainability. Its functionality is derived from similar approaches as have been applied in modern social media. The paper elaborates on the functionality of the platform and its implications for research. It builds upon the research and innovation work as currently done within the EU FP7 Cassandra and iCargo projects.

In order to make the international supply chain system highly efficient in worldwide transportation of goods, its business processes should be supported by high quality information systems that, “24x7”, provide the right data, at the right time, at the right place, to the right person. To do so, the idea of a (virtual) “Seamless Integrated Data Pipeline” has been proposed, a new concept of an effective information exchange system. A key requirement of the Data Pipeline is that the information to be exchanged must be safe and reliable. Starting form the idea that existing systems should be used, this paper proposes three basic protocols that enable the secure exchange of data with respect to three identified security requirements, namely, that of secure identification of supply chain partners, that of harmonization of security levels, and that of harmonization of trust levels.