Discovery Service Routing Queries to Secure Information Providers
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Solution Overview
Problem
In complex and dynamic supply chain networks, existing discovery services face challenges in efficiently retrieving complete information due to partial knowledge among companies and lack of sufficient security and confidentiality controls, making it difficult for supply chain partners to collaborate effectively.
Innovation Solution
A method and system where each participating entity defines access rights at the information supply level, with the discovery service maintaining a list of data items and provider addresses, routing queries directly to identified information providers, which store and check fine-grained access rights, allowing for secure and controlled data access without duplicating sensitive information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If companies retrieve complete information regarding supply chain participants, then information completeness is improved, but the effort and complexity required to locate actors increases
Solution Approach 1:
The discovery service acts as an intermediary that maintains a registry of supply chain participants and their relationships. Instead of companies having to directly locate and query all participants across the network, the discovery service mediates by providing a centralized index that maps queries to the appropriate information providers, significantly reducing the effort required to retrieve complete supply chain information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing and maintaining a registry of supply chain participants, their roles, and their information provider addresses. This registry is built and updated in advance through registration processes, so that when information retrieval is needed, the structural relationships are already in place and can be queried efficiently without requiring real-time discovery of all participants.
2Adaptability or versatility
If companies share sensitive operational data to enhance collaboration, then collaboration effectiveness is improved, but security and confidentiality risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements local quality by allowing each company to define its own access rights and confidentiality policies at its own information provider level. Each participant controls the granularity of data sharing individually, determining which data elements can be accessed by which partners. This localized control mechanism enables effective collaboration while maintaining security, as each company can selectively share sensitive operational data only with trusted partners based on predefined access rights.
Solution Approach 2:
The discovery service maintains a copy of the supply chain participant registry and relationship mappings without storing actual sensitive operational data. This copy allows the system to route queries and manage access rights while the actual sensitive data remains localized at each information provider. The copying of metadata and relationship information enables collaboration coordination without creating security risks from centralized storage of sensitive data.
3Ease of operation
If the discovery service stores complete supply chain information, then information accessibility is improved, but data duplication and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and separates the registry information (participant lists, relationships, and access rights) from the actual operational data. The discovery service stores only the metadata and mapping information in its registry, while the detailed operational data remains at the individual information providers. This extraction eliminates data duplication by ensuring that only necessary reference information is stored centrally, while complete data is accessed through the registry mappings without being duplicated in the discovery service.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes storing, at a discovery service, address information for each of a plurality of information services providers. For each of the plurality of information services, product data of a respective information provider and access right data (defining access rights to the product data) are also stored. At the discovery service, a query is received from an information requester, the query being related to specific product data for a product identifier included in the query. A first information service, of the plurality of information services, is identified as an information provider of the specific product data, and first address information for the first information service is retrieved. The query is routed from the discovery service to the first information service using the first address information. The first information service selectively responds directly to the information requester in accordance with the access right data of the first information service.