Development of a Multi-Radio Device for Dry Container Monitoring and Tracking

Abstract

Maritime shipping companies have identified continuous tracking of intermodal containers as a key tool for increasing shipment reliability and generating important economies of scale. Equipping all dry containers with an Internet-connected tracking device is a need in the global shipping market that is still waiting to be met. This paper presents the methods and tools to build and test a prototype of a Container Tracking Device (CTD) that integrates NB-IoT, BLE Mesh telecommunication and low-power consumption technologies for the massive deployment of the IoT. The work was carried out as part of a project to build the so-called “5G Global Tracking System”, enabling several different logistic applications relying on massive IoT, M2M standard platforms, as well as satellite networks to collect data from dry containers when the vessel is in open sea. Starting from a preliminary phase, in which state-of-the-art technologies, research approaches, industrial initiatives and developing standards were investigated, a prototype version of the CTD has been designed, verified and developed as the first fundamental step for subsequent industrial engineering. The results of specific tests are shown: after verifying that the firmware is capable of handling the various functions of the device, a special focus is devoted to the power consumption measurements of the CTD to size the battery pack.

Keywords

• NB-IoT
• mesh networks
• Bluetooth low energy
• container logistics
• maritime transport