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P216 — AIEP — Cross-System Coordination and Federation Engine

Applicant: Neil Grassby Classification: Patent Application — Confidential Priority: Claims priority from GB2519711.2 filed 20 November 2025 Architecture Layer: AIEP AGI Cognition Layer — Phase 2

Framework Context

[0001] This specification operates within an AIEP environment as defined in GB2519711.2 and GB2519798.9. The present specification defines the cross-system coordination and federation mechanism of the Phase-2 AIEP architecture, enabling multiple AIEP deployments to exchange evidence artefacts, share world state, and coordinate reasoning under a federated governance framework.

Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to federation architectures and cross-system coordination mechanisms for distributed evidence-bound artificial intelligence deployments.

[0003] More particularly, the invention relates to a system that enables two or more independent AIEP evidence ledger deployments to exchange evidence artefacts under a cryptographic trust framework, maintaining provenance integrity across system boundaries.

Background

[0004] Large-scale evidence-bound AI deployments may consist of multiple AIEP nodes operated by distinct organisations, geographic regions, or functional domains. These nodes must share evidence and coordinate reasoning without surrendering local governance authority or introducing a single point of centralised control.

[0005] Cross-system evidence exchange requires: mutual authentication of AIEP node identities; evidence artefact integrity verification across system boundaries; governance policy compatibility checks before sharing; and provenance preservation for evidence arriving from remote nodes.

Summary of the Invention

[0006] The invention provides a Cross-System Coordination and Federation Engine (CSCFE) that: manages a registry of federated AIEP peer nodes; implements a cryptographic trust handshake protocol for establishing federation sessions; handles evidence artefact exchange under the Federated Knowledge Protocol (P230); evaluates governance policy compatibility with peer nodes using the Federated Trust System (P229); and maintains provenance wrappers for remotely-sourced evidence artefacts.

[0007] Remotely received evidence artefacts are assigned a federation provenance wrapper recording: the originating node identifier; the originating node’s ledger sequence number; the transport integrity hash; and the local admission timestamp. This wrapper preserves provenance continuity across system boundaries.

ASCII Architecture

Remote AIEP Node A         Remote AIEP Node B
       |                          |
       v                          v
+------------------------------------------+
|  Cross-System Coordination & Federation  |
|              Engine (CSCFE)              |
|                                          |
|  Peer Registry                          |
|  Trust Handshake (P229)                 |
|  Policy Compatibility Check (P228)      |
|  Evidence Exchange (P230)               |
|  Federation Provenance Wrapper          |
+-------------------+----------------------+
                    |
           +--------+---------+
           |                  |
           v                  v
   Local Evidence         Locally Rejected
   Admission with          (failed trust
   Federation Wrapper      handshake or
   (ledger)                policy incompatible)

Definitions

[0008] Cross-System Coordination and Federation Engine (CSCFE): The subsystem that manages federation sessions between AIEP peer nodes, handles cross-boundary evidence exchange, and ensures provenance continuity for remotely sourced artefacts.

[0009] Peer Registry: A structured registry of known federated AIEP peer nodes, each entry comprising node identifier, public key, last verified connection timestamp, policy compatibility status, and current trust handshake status.

[0010] Federation Session: A cryptographically authenticated connection between this AIEP node and a peer node, established through the trust handshake protocol (P229) and maintained for the duration of evidence exchange.

[0011] Federation Provenance Wrapper: A metadata envelope applied to every remotely received evidence artefact, recording: originating node identifier, originating node ledger sequence number, transport integrity hash, and local admission timestamp.

[0012] Policy Compatibility Status: A classification assigned to each peer node indicating whether the peer’s active governance policy is compatible with this node’s active policy for evidence exchange purposes, evaluated using the Governance Policy Language comparison rules (P228).

Detailed Description

Peer Registration and Trust Establishment. [0013] The CSCFE maintains a peer registry of known AIEP nodes. Each node entry is registered with a public key certificate issued by the AIEP governance authority. On initiation of a federation session with a peer, the CSCFE performs the trust handshake protocol (P229): mutual certificate verification, session key establishment, and peer identity confirmation. Trust handshake results are recorded as handshake artefacts admitted to the evidence ledger. Nodes that fail the trust handshake are marked as UNTRUSTED in the registry and are not eligible for evidence exchange until the handshake is reattempted and passes.

Policy Compatibility Evaluation. [0014] Before any evidence artefact is exchanged with a peer node, the CSCFE evaluates policy compatibility using the Governance Policy Language (P228) comparison rules. Policy compatibility is evaluated at the exchange category level: a peer may be compatible for factual evidence exchange but incompatible for goal-bearing evidence exchange. Incompatibility at any evaluated exchange category prevents exchange of artefacts in that category. Policy compatibility evaluations are repeated at each session renewal and whenever either party updates their active policy.

Evidence Artefact Exchange. [0015] Evidence exchange follows the Federated Knowledge Protocol (P230). Inbound artefacts from peer nodes are received over the authenticated session channel, transport integrity verified against the transmitted hash, and checked for conformance to the AIEP canonical record schema (P41). Conformant artefacts are wrapped in a federation provenance wrapper and forwarded to the local evidence admission pipeline. Artefacts failing integrity checks or schema conformance are quarantined and a quarantine exception artefact is admitted to the local ledger.

Provenance Wrapper Preservation. [0016] The federation provenance wrapper is permanently attached to every remotely sourced artefact through all downstream processing. When a reasoning session cites a wrapped artefact in support of a claim, the citation record includes the full provenance wrapper, enabling the evidence support evaluator (P214) to trace the claim back to its originating node and ledger sequence number. Provenance wrappers may not be removed or modified once applied.

Outbound Artefact Dispatch. [0017] When a peer requests evidence artefacts from this node, the CSCFE validates the request against the active peer policy, retrieves the requested artefacts from the local ledger, signs each artefact with the local node private key, and dispatches them over the authenticated session channel. The dispatch transaction is recorded in a federation dispatch log admitted to the local evidence ledger.

Technical Effect

[0018] The invention provides cryptographically authenticated, governance-constrained evidence exchange for federated AIEP deployments. By requiring mutual trust handshakes before evidence exchange and performing policy compatibility checks at the exchange category level, the system prevents cross-system evidence corruption from incompatible governance regimes. By attaching immutable provenance wrappers to all remotely received artefacts and requiring that wrappers are preserved through all downstream processing, the system maintains complete cross-system audit trails.

Claims

  1. A computer-implemented method for cross-system coordination and federation, the method comprising: (a) maintaining a peer registry of known AIEP nodes with public key certificates, trust handshake status, and policy compatibility classifications; (b) establishing federation sessions through a cryptographic trust handshake protocol providing mutual certificate verification and session key establishment, with handshake results recorded as evidence artefacts; (c) evaluating governance policy compatibility at the exchange category level before any evidence artefact exchange, preventing exchange in categories where policies are incompatible; (d) receiving inbound evidence artefacts, verifying transport integrity and canonical schema conformance, and applying a federation provenance wrapper to conformant artefacts before local admission; and (e) preserving federation provenance wrappers through all downstream processing, including claim citation records, to enable complete cross-system audit trail traversal.

  2. The method of claim 1, wherein artefacts failing integrity checks or schema conformance are quarantined and a quarantine exception artefact is admitted to the local evidence ledger with the artefact transport hash and failure reason.

  3. The method of claim 1, wherein policy compatibility evaluations are repeated at each session renewal and whenever either party updates their active governance policy.

  4. The method of claim 1, wherein outbound artefact dispatch transactions are recorded in a federation dispatch log admitted to the local evidence ledger, providing a symmetric cross-system audit record.

  5. The method of claim 1, wherein trust handshake failures result in the peer being marked UNTRUSTED in the peer registry, preventing evidence exchange until a successful reattempt.

  6. A Cross-System Coordination and Federation Engine comprising: one or more processors; memory storing a peer registry, session key store, federation provenance wrapper buffer, and federation dispatch log; wherein the processors are configured to execute the method of claim 1.

  7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the method of claim 1.

Abstract

A cross-system coordination and federation engine for evidence-bound artificial intelligence manages authenticated evidence exchange between AIEP peer nodes through cryptographic trust handshakes, governance policy compatibility evaluation, and federated knowledge protocol transfer. Inbound evidence artefacts are wrapped in immutable federation provenance wrappers preserving originating node identity and ledger sequence number through all downstream processing. Outbound dispatch transactions and handshake results are recorded in the local evidence ledger, providing symmetric cross-system audit coverage. +-------------------+----------------------+ | v Local AIEP Evidence Ledger (remote artefacts admitted with wrappers)


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## Detailed Description

[0008] **Peer Registry.** The peer registry maintains records for each known federated AIEP node: `node_id` (cryptographic public key hash); `endpoint_uri`; `trust_level` (established through P229 attestation); `active_policy_version_hash` (remote node's current governance policy hash); and `last_seen_at` timestamp.

[0009] **Federation Handshake.** Before evidence exchange, the CSCFE performs a mutual authentication handshake using the Federated Trust System (P229), verifying both nodes' identity and current governance policy hashes.

[0010] **Policy Compatibility Check.** Before admitting evidence from a remote node, the CSCFE compares the remote node's governance policy hash against the local compatibility whitelist. Evidence from nodes whose policies are incompatible with local governance constraints is quarantined pending review.

[0011] **Evidence Exchange.** The CSCFE implements the Federated Knowledge Protocol (P230) for evidence transfer, including: artefact hash verification before admission; sequence number continuity checking; and rate limiting per peer node.

[0012] **Provenance Wrapper.** Each remotely received artefact is admitted to the local ledger with a federation provenance wrapper rather than being treated as a locally originated artefact. Downstream reasoning systems can query the wrapper to distinguish local and remote evidence provenance.

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## Claims

1. A federation engine for evidence-bound reasoning architectures enabling cross-system evidence exchange with provenance integrity preservation.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein remote evidence is admitted with cryptographic provenance wrappers recording originating node identity.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein governance policy compatibility is verified before evidence admission from remote nodes.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein federation sessions are established through a mutual authentication trust handshake.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein a peer registry maintains trust level and policy version records for each federated node.

Dependencies

This specification is published as open-source prior art under the Apache License 2.0. Copyright 2026 Protocol Owner. Inventor: Protocol Architect.

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