Matthieu-P. Schapranow

A Formal Model for Enabling RFID in Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

The use of RFID technology for anti-counterfeiting involves complex event processing, which exceeds the current state of the art of product tracking and tracing implementations. The use of RFID requires storing good related events for anti-counterfeiting in a distributed way by each handling party individually. We define a formal approach for modeling of data entities, events, and operations that correlate to handling of pharmaceutical goods. This supports the operation of a unified service provider for anti-counterfeiting that matches virtual product history and event data from distributed repositories of involved supply chain roles. Our contribution includes a quantitative analysis of the expected data amount and related costs for operating this service provider by applying our formal approach to a concrete pharmaceutical supply chain.

A Dynamic Mutual RFID Authentication Model Preventing Unauthorized Third Party Access

RFID implementations leverage competitive business advantages in processing, tracking and tracing of fast-moving goods. Most of them suffer from security threats and the resulting privacy risks as RFID technology was not designed for exchange of sensible data. Emerging global RFID-aided supply chains require open interfaces for data exchange of confidential business data between business partners. We present a mutual authentication model based on one-time passwords preventing tag access by unauthorized third parties. Compared to models using complex on-tag encryption methods our implementation focuses on reducing tag-manufacturing costs while increasing customers’ acceptance for RFID technology.

HIG — An in-memory database platform enabling real-time analyses of genome data

Costs and time required for sequencing of DNA and RNA declined through use of next generation sequencing technology, e.g. up to 30-times coverage reads are generated in less than two days. However, its interpretation and analysis is still a time-consuming process potentially taking weeks. In this work, we present a completely new architecture for processing and analyzing genome data. It builds on the in-memory database technology to eliminate time-consuming file-based data operations and to enable real-time data analysis. We found out that the use of in-memory technology as an integral component for genome data processing and its analysis significantly reduces time and costs to obtain relevant results, e.g. in the course of personalized medicine.

Discovery Services in the EPC Network

Recent advances in Auto-ID technology, especially RFID, provide great potential for the innovation of existing processes in Supply Chain Management (SCM). Accompanied with item level identification using the EPC, companies are able to capture product lifecycle information at unprecedented levels of detail. RFID readers placed at strategic points in the supply chain automatically capture information about passing objects while they move along their way from the manufacturer to the consumer. Modern RFID tags can be equipped with sensors for temperature, humidity or other physical conditions, providing information systems with instant data on the current location and status of objects. Auto-ID bridges the gap between the physical and the digital world, providing real-time information about current supply chain operations. It provides companies with increased supply chain visibility [Melski et al. (2008)], resulting in reduced uncertainty, regarding operational and tactical supply chain planning. Overall, Auto-ID supports companies by providing higher information quality and quantity. While most of the aforementioned aspects concern company internal processes, an even greater potential is being anticipated for company-overlapping supply chain collaboration. The possibility to provide real-time information about intra-company operations to trading partners, upand downstream the supply chain, allows companies to increase value creation over all levels of the supply chain. In particular, planning activities of adjacent trading partners can be performed with a higher degree of certainty, reducing the need for high safety stock levels, which in turn reduces inventory costs [Simchi-Levi et al. (2003)]. On the other hand, many industries struggle with volatile demands, leading to the risk of running out of stock in times of higher demand. Real-time information can help to detect critical stock levels early. Sharing that information instantly with suppliers allows them to take immediate action such as rescheduling of shipments or increasing production rates to cope with temporary increased demand. Section 2 of this chapter will go into the details of two selected industry use cases that outline the benefits of company-overlapping collaboration. The existence of practical scenarios for supply chain collaboration based on Auto-ID data demands for an infrastructure of information systems to support these use cases. EPCglobal, a joint venture between GS1 (formerly known as EAN International) and GS1 US (formerly the Uniform Code Council, Inc.), introduced the EPCglobal Architecture Framework, which is suppose to increase visibility and efficiency throughout the supply chain as well as to 8

Costs of authentic pharmaceuticals: research on qualitative and quantitative aspects of enabling anti-counterfeiting in RFID-aided supply chains

The pharmaceutical industry suffers from steadily increasing counterfeit rates. RFID technology is named as a foundation for an integer and counterfeit-resistant pharmaceutical supply chain. A transformation toward an RFID-aided supply chain involves both technical and business adaptions. We share technical insights of our proposed architecture for storing and searching pharmaceutical RFID event data. From the business perspective, we discuss the viability of RFID-based anti-counterfeiting with respect to its monetary impacts. We define qualitative requirements for software components developed for RFID and provide a quantitative analysis of operational costs for a dedicated service provider for anti-counterfeiting. Its implementation and amortization is discussed for different operating setups to enable access to RFID technology for all participants of pharmaceutical the supply chain

Securing EPCglobal Object Name Service - Privacy Enhancements for Anti-counterfeiting

In RFID-aided supply chains captured location-based event data is stored in distributed repositories. Performing anti-counterfeiting involves checks on the goods path in the supply chain. The path is reconstructed by querying corresponding event data from distributed repositories. The object name service performs lookups of relevant event repositories in EPCglobal networks. Attacking the lookup process can be used to break privacy of inquirers, e.g. to derive product and user profiles. We share details about our security enhancement prototypes to protect the privacy of querying parties. Our developed enhancements are designed for easy integration into existing network infrastructures without major efforts.

Enabling real-time charging for smart grid infrastructures using in-memory databases

The emerging trend towards smart grids defines new requirements for designing enterprise applications for the energy market. Current solutions were built to process single billing runs as time-consuming batch jobs. Rather than processing some readings per year and household, a constant stream of meter readings has to be processed in context of a smart power grid. Additionally, consumers demand for convenient ways to monitor power consumption while getting real-time charging information on a daily basis. In this paper, we share our experiences of integrating meter readings in an industry-specific enterprise application for utilities to support real-time billing. Our prototype enables customers to track consumptions and to view billing details online. Besides, we discuss new business scenarios enabled by this real-timeliness.

High-Performance In-Memory Genome Data Analysis

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed December 22, 2013).

Security Extensions for Improving Data Security of Event Repositories in EPCglobal Networks

Location-based event data is captured in RFID-aided supply chains for tacking individual goods. They are stored in distributed event repositories by involved supply chain parties. Performing anti-counterfeiting checks involves exchange of event data without exposure of sensitive business secrets. Current EPC global standards leave the definition of security strategies open for concrete implementation. We consider data security as the major aspect that needs to be clarified before wide adaption of EPC global standards will be considered by industries. The given work contributes by defining security extensions for EPC global networks and sharing implementation details of our research prototype. We show that incorporating in-memory technology enables history-based access control while keeping response times fast.

Low-cost mutual RFID authentication model using predefined password lists

The use of RFID tags for storing unique identifiers increases the complexity of existing global supply chains. Companies participating in this RFID-aided supply chains are confronted with new challenges by using RFID technology. Most RFID tags contain no sophisticated data protection mechanisms, because they are primarily designed to be cheap and to carry a very limited amount of data. This lack of data protection introduces various attack scenarios for current and upcoming RFID scenarios. The use of authentication in communication networks prevents third parties to gather access to confidential data. We introduce a mutual authentication model prevent the exposure of RFID communication data between tag and reader based on the implementation of predefined on-tag password lists.