Digital Transformation in Legal Metrology: An Approach to a Distributed Architecture for Consolidating Metrological Services and Data

Abstract

In this paper the digital transformation of sovereign processes are outlined. The driving force is to streamline and innovate metrological processes for measuring instruments under legal control. The main challenge is to preserve the same level of trust and security for digitally transformed procedures as for conventional paper-based procedures. In the digital domain, a new balance has to be negotiated between security and process requirements without burdening the digital procedures with additional security prerequisites. Considering the strict legal framework, a distributed software architecture approach is presented that offers privacy, security and resilience. The cornerstone of the digital transformation is the Administrative Shell, representing measuring instruments in the digital domain. It will hold all measuring instrument related documents throughout its life cycle for the first time and offers access to all stakeholders. For this reason, a new security concept with additional roles is introduced including the Metrological Administrator. It manages digital metrological processes. At the same time, the platform approach seamlessly integrates existing public and private infrastructures. Moreover, a service hub is created with interdependent services that support the digital transformation of paper-based processes, such as verification and software update. These main use cases are introduced, and their requirements and implementation approach are outlined. At the current state of research, all evaluated metrological processes will still depend on human interaction. Currently, it is not possible to fully automatize and streamline the process chain to its full extent. Nevertheless, the presented results are important steps towards this long term goal.