Despite the increasing academic interest and financial support for the Physical Internet (PI), surprisingly little is known about its operationalization and implementation. In this paper, we suggest studying the PI on the basis of the Digital Internet (DI), which is a well‐established entity. We propose a conceptual framework for the PI network using the DI as a starting point, and find that the PI network not only needs to solve the reachability problem, that is, how to route an item from A to B, but also must confront a more complicated optimality problem, that is, how to dynamically optimize a set of additional logistics‐related metrics such as cost, emissions and time for a shipment. These last issues are less critical for the DI and handled using relatively simpler procedures. Based on our conceptual framework, we then propose a simple network model using graph theory to support the operationalization of the PI. The model covers the characteristics of the PI raised in the current literature and suggests future directions for further quantitative analyses.

中文翻译：

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从数字互联网到物理互联网：具有程式化网络模型的概念框架

尽管对物理Internet（PI）的学术兴趣和财务支持不断增长，但令人惊讶的是，对其的操作和实施知之甚少。在本文中，我们建议在数字互联网（DI）的基础上研究PI，PI是一个完善的实体。我们提出了一个以DI为起点的PI网络的概念框架，发现PI网络不仅需要解决可达性问题，即如何将物品从A路由到B，而且还必须面对更复杂的最优性问题，即如何动态优化一组其他与物流相关的指标，例如成本，排放量和装运时间。这些最后一个问题对于DI而言不太重要，可以使用相对简单的过程来处理。根据我们的概念框架，然后，我们使用图论提出一个简单的网络模型来支持PI的操作。该模型涵盖了当前文献中提出的PI的特征，并为进一步的定量分析提供了未来的方向。