Distributed Ledger Technology Architecture for Private Event Tracking in Supply Chains

Supply chain processes and logistics require both data interoperability and tamper-resistant long-term information storage for accountability. Fragmented data formats and limited trust between stakeholders still hinder end-to-end traceability in modern supply chains integrated with the Internet of Things. For this purpose, the GS1 Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) 2.0 standard aims to standardize event semantics. By itself, however, it cannot guarantee data security or fine-grained sharing across organizational boundaries. Here, we propose a lightweight architecture that integrates EPCIS 2.0 with the feeless IOTA distributed ledger, based on directed acyclic graph. A Ledger Gateway component exposes a RESTful Application Programming Interface to enable supply chain data management for involved parties, while a Data Standardization Service (DSS) handles bidirectional conversion between arbitrary JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) payloads and EPCIS documents via configurable mappings. This combination preserves interoperability, ensures tamper-proof storage, and remains suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices. An experimental campaign, based on a prototype relying on a private IOTA network, confirms the technical viability of the approach.