koodivaramu.eesti.ee/majandus-ja-kommunikatsiooniministeerium/ecmr-prototype-testing

Introduction

A common international eCMR indexing scheme was proposed to be developed and prototyped between partner countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The prototype involved the digital availability of a CMR document (preferred machine-readable) and a mechanism of indexing the availability of such documents across the partner countries via an indexing scheme.

The system is focused on business to government (B2G) information exchange by using indexing service and the indexing number. The appointed government institutions and controlling institutions of the involved country will be able to see where the eCMR is stored and receive agreed available data.

Schema 1. Life cycle of moving goods (Source: UN/CEFACT)

The developed system will help to share and control data in a decentralized infrastructure that ensures high security, data immutability, transaction transparency and no single central point of control. All system development decisions are based on EU standards and UN/CEFACT best practices.

E-government compatible distributed approach with application programming interface (API) accesses was deployed, using distributed ledger technology (DLT) approach. Every authorized governmental institution was able to access minimum available indexing information via specialized API and get a link to request original documents relevant data directory from eCMR service from the county of origin.

The scope of the project was to build an expanded index and search system that would help to navigate and control data in centralized or decentralized networks at the highest security level.

eCMR documents distributed index and search engine had to be a system where there is no central server, but at the same time allows sharing necessary data according to various roles and access rights. Unlike traditional centralized search engines, work such as crawling, data mining, indexing, and query processing is distributed among several peers in a decentralized manner where there is no single point of control.

The solution needed to support a paperless logistics ecosystem in the best possible way.

Features

Schema 2. Country EDI provider exchanges information with the national index registry over the API.

• All functionality and data exchange works at national and cross-border level
• Indexing supports various electronic document standards in XML, JSON, EDIFACT or PDF format
• Adding or updating electronic document index(es) with minimum set of data fields
• Parties in process use different index registries, but update the same index
• The system works with both - a single truck with loading place and a truck train
• Making search by vehicle plate number if cargo not unloaded or by eCMR index ID
• Possibility to see who and when (date/time) added or updated the index
• Possibility to follow who has viewed electronic document index (certificates)
• Allows very easy to add or remove user rights groups from the registry if required
• User rights based on two groups: “government” and “business”
• Allows the exchange of information in the following directions - business to government (B2G, B2A) and also business to business (B2B)

Schema 3. The index registries exchange data with each other using DLT technology.

Installation

• Use cloud service cloud service (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Serices, etc.) or your own hardware
• Build containers as specified in build instructions:
  • Organizations API
  • Index API
  • Fabric REST API
• Deploy built containers for eCMR index registry server
• If you want to connect your own server with other servers in the ecosystem, see instruction "eCMR Index Registry Adding Guide"
• Info how EDI providers can connect over the API with the installed eCMR index registry server you find in instructions:
  • Instruction on How to Use eCMR Index Registry Administration Console
  • Description of eCMR Index Registry and Tested Use Case Example by Fitek Team

Technical documentation

See final report and instructions in documents/README.md and API Documentation (PDF)

Source code

• Smart-Contract
• eCMR Go Library
• Hyperledger Fabric Network Configuration
• Fabric REST API
• Index API
• Organizations API

Licencing

Source code of eCMR index registry is open for all and it is licenced under MIT licence.

Support disclaimer

Consultational services for deploying independent eCMR index registry should be obtained from enterprises with such services. Known organizations are:

• Fitek EDI, UAB

Useful links

• UN/CEFACT. Business Requirement Specifications (BRS), find in page “e-CMR”
• Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 on electronic freight transport information

Development under DIGINNO-Proto project
Funded by Nordic Council of Ministers
Prototype ordered by Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and developed by FITEK EDI, UAB