Dual Ownership: Access Management for Shared Item Information in RFID-enabled Supply Chains

Abstract

RFID tags combined with globally unique numbering schemes such as the electronic product code (EPC) help standardizing the communication along the supply chain. Participants generate and share item information to collectively build digital lifecycle records. Yet, the challenge of efficient access management for item-level information still remains open. This paper introduces a novel concept for data access management, called dual ownership. The model grants access control to parties that can prove the physical possession of an item. RFID technology hereby tracks the transitions of physical possession to translate them to data access permissions. This paper describes the concept of dual ownership and discusses its implications