Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Modelling and Executing Time-Aware Processes in Trustless Blockchain Environment

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Risks and Security of Internet and Systems (CRiSIS 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12026))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Blockchain is an emergent technology which enables the execution of collaborative business processes while ensuring trust by replacing central authority with cryptographic proof and distributed consensus. Thus, Blockchain technology can be used to find agreement between untrusted collaborating parties in business processes. However, temporal constraints of processes need more investigation. Indeed, Blockchain platforms do not offer means to represent nor to manage temporal constraints for business processes. Moreover, transaction completion time is not fixed, it can take from a few seconds to several minutes. In this paper, we include temporal constraints in smart contracts, which could mitigate the violation of time constraints, minimize the costly execution time, and avoiding thus financial penalties. To achieve this, we extend Caterpillar tool, which is the first open-source blockchain-based BPMN execution engine, to enable the automatic transformation of a large set of temporal constraints for business process model to smart contract code. We illustrate our approach with a use case, which we deploy in Ethereum Testnet.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Li, Y., Luo, Z., Yin, J., Lida, X., Yin, Y., Zhaohui, W.: Enterprise pattern: integrating the business process into a unified enterprise model of modern service company. Enterp. Inf. Syst. 11(1), 37–57 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Nakamoto, S.: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Cryptography Mailing List (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wood, G.: Ethereum: a secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum project 151, 1–32 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Mendling, J., et al.: Blockchains for business process management-challenges and opportunities. ACM Trans. Manag. Inf. Syst. 9(1), 4 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Weber, I., Xu, X., Riveret, R., Governatori, G., Ponomarev, A., Mendling, J.: Untrusted business process monitoring and execution using blockchain. In: La Rosa, M., Loos, P., Pastor, O. (eds.) BPM 2016. LNCS, vol. 9850, pp. 329–347. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45348-4_19

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. García-Bañuelos, L., Ponomarev, A., Dumas, M., Weber, I.: Optimized execution of business processes on blockchain. In: Carmona, J., Engels, G., Kumar, A. (eds.) BPM 2017. LNCS, vol. 10445, pp. 130–146. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65000-5_8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Viriyasitavat, W., Da Xu, L., Bi, Z., Sapsomboon, A.: Blockchain-based business process management (BPM) framework for service composition in industry 4.0. J. Intell. Manuf. 1–12 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Sturm, C., Szalanczi, J., Schönig, S., Jablonski, S.: A lean architecture for blockchain based decentralized process execution. In: Daniel, F., Sheng, Q.Z., Motahari, H. (eds.) BPM 2018. LNBIP, vol. 342, pp. 361–373. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11641-5_29

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. López-Pintado, O., García-Bañuelos, L., Dumas, M., Weber, I.: Caterpillar: a blockchain-based business process management system. In: Proceedings of the BPM Demo Track and BPM Dissertation Award Co-Located with 15th International Conference on Business Process Modeling. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 1920. CEUR-WS.org (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  10. López-Pintado, O., García-Bañuelos, L., Dumas, M., Weber, I., Ponomarev, A.: Caterpillar: a business process execution engine on the ethereum blockchain. Softw. Pract. Exp. 49(7), 1162–1193 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cheikhrouhou, S., Kallel, S., Guermouche, N., Jmaiel, M.: The temporal perspective in business process modeling: a survey and research challenges. SOCA 9(1), 75–85 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bohnenkamp, H., Belinfante, A.: Timed testing with TorX. In: Fitzgerald, J., Hayes, I.J., Tarlecki, A. (eds.) FM 2005. LNCS, vol. 3582, pp. 173–188. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11526841_13

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Yasaweerasinghelage, R., Staples, M., Weber, I.: Predicting latency of blockchain-based systems using architectural modelling and simulation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), pp. 253–256. IEEE (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Haarmann, S.: Estimating the duration of blockchain-based business processes using simulation. In: Proceedings of the 11th Central European Workshop on Services and Their Composition (ZEUS), pp. 24–31 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Mavridou, A., Laszka, A.: Designing secure ethereum smart contracts: a finite state machine based approach. arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.09327 (2017)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ReDCAD, University of Sfax, BP. 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Amal Abid, Saoussen Cheikhrouhou & Mohamed Jmaiel

  2. Digital Research Center of Sfax, BP. 275, Sakiet Ezzit, 3021, Sfax, Tunisia

    Mohamed Jmaiel

Authors
  1. Amal Abid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Saoussen Cheikhrouhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohamed Jmaiel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amal Abid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ReDCAD, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Slim Kallel

  2. IMT Atlantique, Lab-STICC, Université Bretagne Loire, Rennes, France

    Frédéric Cuppens

  3. IMT Atlantique, Lab-STICC, Université Bretagne Loire, Rennes, France

    Nora Cuppens-Boulahia

  4. ReDCAD, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Ahmed Hadj Kacem

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Abid, A., Cheikhrouhou, S., Jmaiel, M. (2020). Modelling and Executing Time-Aware Processes in Trustless Blockchain Environment. In: Kallel, S., Cuppens, F., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., Hadj Kacem, A. (eds) Risks and Security of Internet and Systems. CRiSIS 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12026. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41568-6_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41568-6_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41567-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41568-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation