arXiv subjects

Christoph F. Strnadl

Publications and source records attributed to Christoph F. Strnadl.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ecosystem Trust Profiles

We define a method how digital ecosystems (including data spaces) may autonomously define and "advertise" credentials they issue or they trust in the form of so-called ecosystem trust profiles. An ecosystem trust profile collects all (verifiable) credentials and issuers sorted by trust scope accepted ("trusted") by a particular ecosystem. We then show how a minimal trust relation between ecosystems may be defined using ecosystem trust frameworks of different ecosystems and explore a few of its properties. A first application of the theory is given for a use case in the manufacturing realm where different international ecosystems need to agree on certain credentials for various scopes of trust such as identity, service compliance, and other conformance standards. We implement this requirement by identifying and discussing two different definitions of credential equivalence for a given trust scope, one requiring additional cross-ecosystem governance or coordination, one not. The second approach demonstrates how to solve the so-called cross-ecosystem trust dilemma, that is, the problem how ecosystems can establish cross-ecosystem trust while, at the same time, allowing them to fully retain their sovereignty. A fragility theorem demonstrates that this sovereignty leads trust to be unstable without any additional coordination or governance mechanisms on top of (and outside to) ecosystem trust profiles. We extend our method to data spaces in particular and propose a novel rigorous definition of cross-data space interoperability. This allows us to prove the proposition that the extent of interoperability between two data spaces is exactly determined by the amount of commonality in their respective ecosystem trust profiles.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2024

The Mathematical Syntax of Architectures

Despite several (accepted) standards, core notions typically employed in information technology or system engineering architectures lack the precise and exact foundations encountered in logic, algebra, and other branches of mathematics. In this contribution we define the syntactical aspects of the term architecture in a mathematically rigorous way. We motivate our particular choice by demonstrating (i) how commonly understood and expected properties of an architecture -- as defined by various standards -- can be suitably identified or derived within our formalization, (ii) how our concept is fully compatible with real life (business) architectures, and (iii) how our definition complements recent foundational work in this area (Wilkinson 2018, Dickersen 2020, Efatmaneshnik 2020). We furthermore develop a rigorous notion of architectural similarity based on the notion of homomorphisms allowing the class of architectures to be regarded as a category, Arch. We demonstrate the applicability of our concepts to theory by deriving theorems on the classification of certain types of architectures. Inter alia, we derive a no go theorem proving that, in contrast to n-tier architectures, one cannot sensibly define generic architectural modularity on the syntactical level alone.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2024

A Formal Transaction Cost-Based Analysis of the Economic Feasibility of Ecosystems

Ecosystems enjoy increasing attention due to their flexibility and innovative power. It is well known, however, that this type of network-based economic governance structures occupies a potentially unstable position between the two stable (governance) endpoints, namely the firm (i.e., hierarchical governance) and the (open) market (i.e., coordination through the monetary system). This paper develops a formal (mathematical) theory of the economic value of (generic) ecosystem by extending transaction costs economics using certain elements from service-dominant logic. Within a first-best setting of rational actors, we derive analytical solutions for the hub-and-spoke and generic ecosystem configurations under some uniformity assumptions of ecosystem participants. Additionally, we are able to infer a generic condition for the welfare-maximizing and utility-maximizing price of the hub-and-spoke configuration in the familiar form of Lerner indices and elasticities. Relinquishing a first-best rational actors approach, we additionally derive several general propositions on (i) necessary conditions for the economic feasibility of ecosystem-based transactions, (ii) scaling requirements for ecosystem stability, and (iii) a generic feasibility condition for arbitrary provider-consumer ecosystems. Finally, we present an algebraic definition of business ecosystems and relate it to existing informal definition attempts. Thereby we demonstrate that the property of "being an ecosystem" of a network of transacting actors cannot be decided on structural grounds alone.

econ.TH↗

arXiv2020

End-to-end-Architekturen zur Datenmonetarisierung im IIoT. Konzepte und Implementierungen

The value creation potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), that is the connection of arbitrary objects to the Internet, lies in the creation of business benefits through accessing and processing the circa 80 Zettabytes (1 ZB = 10^21 Bytes) of data produced by an estimated 40 billions of IoT endpoints (prognosis for 2025). This contribution derives and presents the information technology-related fundament and basis required to be able to reap this potential. Quantity and heterogeneity of the devices and machines especially encountered in the industry at large in the so-called industrial IoT (IIoT) require the use of a typically cloud-based IoT platform for logical concentration and more efficient management of the -- unavoidable in industry -- complexity. Stringent non-functional requirements especially regarding (low) latency, (high) bandwidth, access to large processing capacities, and security and privacy-related aspects necessitate the deployment of intermediary IoT gateways endowed with different capability sets in the edge continuum between IoT endpoints and the IoT platform in the cloud. This will be illustrated in the form of two use cases from corporate projects using a component architecture view point. Finally we argue that this classical concept of IoT projects needs to be strategically widened towards application integration (key word: IT/OT integration) and API management resulting in the coupling of a suitable integration and API management platforms to the IoT platform in order to use this end-to-end understanding of IoT/IIoT to fully leverage the innovation-stimulating and transformational character of IIoT and Industry 4.0.

cs.NI↗