Context-aware web services for security control and privacy preservation in an RFID supply chain

Automation and optimisation of supply-chain activities are made possible by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID supply chain performance can be enhanced by integrating RFID functions into the web service paradigm. However, the use of RFID involves growing privacy and security concerns, in part because the lack of RFID tag capacity places the whole supply-chain loop at risk of security such as product counterfeiting. In this paper, we tackle the security and privacy challenges in RFID by using context-aware web service technology. By employing a seven-layer trust framework, we design the functionalities to comply with web service architecture. In order to address the security and privacy problems, we also use the context parameters such as location and time to model the situations of RFID tags. A complete case of RFID-enabled supply chain in an EPCglobal network using context-aware web services is provided to tackle the RFID security and privacy challenges.