A Solution with Security Concern for RFID-Based Track & Trace Services in EPCglobal-Enabled Supply Chains

1.1 Overview A supply chain represents the flow of materials, information, and finance as they move through supply chain partners such as manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. The track & trace services in supply chains can help improve supply chain visibility and efficiency, and prevent counterfeiting and stealing of products thus enhance security. Track & trace services in supply chains require identification of items, capture of events as items move through supply chains, and query of events of items. RFID (radio frequency identification) is a technology that allows to identify objects simultaneously in a fully automated manner via radio waves. This advantage has enabled RFID technology to be used in many applications, including supply chain management (Angeles, 2005) and industrial production (Mintchell, 2002). RFID-based product track & trace in supply chains has attracted growing interests from both academic research and industrial practices.