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A Blockchain to Bridge Business Information Systems and Industrial Automation Environments in Supply Chains

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Innovations for Community Services (I4CS 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1404))

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Abstract

The design of information systems using distributed ledger technologies needs to balance the potential of disruptive technologies with community needs. The NutriSafe project implements a blockchain-based infrastructure for food supply chains using the Hyperledger Fabric framework. The paper presents results from engineering a blockchain-based solution for food production and logistics with process models, architecture, and concepts and two focus areas: the bridges between business information systems to blockchain and from Internet of Things technology to blockchain. The article discusses the concepts of integrating the blockchain infrastructure across all layers of the automation pyramid, with the implications of integrating operational technology and storing semantics between products and machinery on a distributed ledger. Throughout, ideas and designs take the needs of small and medium-sized organizations into account and aim for an open, distributed approach inspired by the edge computing philosophy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that the consortium itself as an element in a Hyperledger Fabric network is depreciated in newer versions and Fabric version 2.2 (LTS) is the last one supporting this feature.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the funding of NutriSafe (FKZ: 13N15070). We would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria – Agriculture, Regions and Tourism for funding the bilateral German-Austrian research project NutriSafe in the Sifo and Kiras Research programmes.

Furthermore, we want to thank Manfred Hofmeier for contributing information on the IT infrastructure in the food supply chain and Razvan Hrestic for discussions on the script environment of NutriSafe. We thank our colleagues Andreas Hermann, Tobias Wagner, Andreas Huber from Universität der Bundeswehr, and Dennis Lamken from OTARIS GmbH for their contribution to the NutriSafe code base and their collaboration on the architecture. We also thank our German and Austrian project partners in NutriSafe for their interdisciplinary contributions and the reviewers of the I4CS conference for their careful and insightful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany

    Karl Seidenfad, Tim Hoiss & Ulrike Lechner

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  1. Karl Seidenfad
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  2. Tim Hoiss
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  3. Ulrike Lechner
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Correspondence to Tim Hoiss or Ulrike Lechner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Udo R. Krieger

  2. Deutsche Telekom Technology & Innovation, Darmstadt, Germany

    Gerald Eichler

  3. University of Applied Sciences Jena, Jena, Germany

    Christian Erfurth

  4. University of Hagen, Hagen, Germany

    Günter Fahrnberger

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Seidenfad, K., Hoiss, T., Lechner, U. (2021). A Blockchain to Bridge Business Information Systems and Industrial Automation Environments in Supply Chains. In: Krieger, U.R., Eichler, G., Erfurth, C., Fahrnberger, G. (eds) Innovations for Community Services. I4CS 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1404. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75004-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75004-6_3

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