A design for secure discovery services in the EPCglobal architecture

Abstract

The EPCglobal NetworkEPCglobal Network architecture defines a functional component, named Discovery Service (DS Discovery Service (DS)), whose role is to enable the gathering of complete information from multiple information providers across an object's lifecycle. The DS has great potential for improving business processes and providing new services to customers. However, at present, despite the progress in ratification of EPCglobal standards for other interfaces such as the EPC Information Service (EPCIS EPC Information Service (EPCIS)) or Object Naming Service (ONS Object Name Service (ONS)), a technical standard for DS interfaces is still under development. In this early stage of the standardisation process, this chapter presents an analysis of potential models for DS designDS design See Discovery Services. We present a detailed design based on a model providing greater security. We have both implemented and deployed Discovery Service modules based on our selected model. Finally, we present solutions implemented to provide secure communications between different entities and fine-grained access control to DS records in a design that is scalable. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.