A Semantic Link Network Model for Supporting Traceability of Logistics on Blockchain

2025-03-10

AI Summary

To address the challenges of cross-organizational state sharing and infeasibility of centralized tracking in cross-border logistics—stemming from national sovereignty constraints and system heterogeneity—this paper proposes a blockchain-based provenance model built upon Semantic Chain Networks. Our approach introduces three key contributions: (1) a novel mapping mechanism from semantic chains to blockchain transactions, modeling logistics processes as stateful, verifiable semantic chains; (2) a path shortcut algorithm enabling logarithmic-time efficient provenance queries; and (3) a lightweight, incentive-driven consensus protocol incorporating reward-penalty mechanisms to encourage multi-party collaborative verification. Simulation results demonstrate that the model significantly enhances traceability flexibility, verification validity, and query efficiency—while preserving immutability and cross-domain interoperability—thereby strengthening end-to-end trusted collaboration across the logistics supply chain.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Representing, Reasoning, and Using Provenance, Trust
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Description Logics
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data provenance, reliability, and authenticity

Abstract

The ability of tracing states of logistic transportations requires an efficient storage and retrieval of the state of logistic transportations and locations of logistic objects. However, the restriction of sharing states and locations of logistic objects across organizations from different countries makes it hard to deploy a centralized database for implementing the traceability in a cross-border logistic system. This paper proposes a semantic data model on Blockchain to represent a logistic process based on the Semantic Link Network model where each semantic link represents a logistic transportation of a logistic object between two parties. A state representation model is designed to represent the states of a logistic transportation with semantic links. It enables the locations of logistic objects to be derived from the link states. A mapping from the semantic links to the blockchain transactions is designed to enable schema of semantic links and states of semantic links to be published in blockchain transactions. To improve the efficiency of tracing a path of semantic links on blockchain platform, an algorithm is designed to build shortcuts along the path of semantic links to enable a query on the path of a logistic object to reach the target in logarithmic steps on the blockchain platform. A reward-penalty policy is designed to allow participants to confirm the state of links on blockchain. Analysis and simulation demonstrate the flexibility, effectiveness and the efficiency of Semantic Link Network on immutable blockchain for implementing logistic traceability.

Problem

• Efficient storage and retrieval of logistics states and locations
• Cross-border logistics traceability without centralized databases
• Semantic Link Network model for blockchain-based logistics traceability

Innovation

• Semantic Link Network model for logistics traceability
• Blockchain-based state representation and mapping
• Algorithm for efficient path tracing on blockchain