Each day a myriad of items are transported across vast distances. And many of those items have a high value. For example, any one of the 250 million containers used to shift cargo across sea and land (according to the World Shipping Council)[1] could contain millions of dollars of manufactured goods, machine tools, medicines, vehicles, food, chemicals or various other assets.
Although the intermodal freight transport system is mature and efficient, things can go wrong. According to The New Yorker[2], a single shipping container can hold five thousand individual boxes, a single ship offloads nine thousand containers within hours and the largest ports process as many as a hundred thousand containers every day. The numbers make it a major challenge to keep track of everything. Inevitably, items go missing or get damaged in transit. Poor handling, incorrect packing and exposure to adverse environmental conditions are among the primary causes of loss.
Nordic supports cellular IoT asset tracking applications by supplying an end-to-end cellular IoT platform which brings simplicity, stability and cost efficiency to cellular IoT design, manufacture and deployment. For the first time, vendors can access chips, software and services that are designed, controlled and supplied by a single company.
This comprehensive cellular IoT solution saves asset tracker developers considerable time, money, engineering resources and the frustration that result from dealing with fragmented supply chains.
Development is made easier through Nordic’s unified and scalable nRF Connect SDK. The nRF Connect for Desktop software also offers unique cellular IoT tools for optimizing power consumption and evaluating, monitoring and debugging network connectivity.
Cellular IoT (LTE-M or NB-IoT) offers an ideal solution for intermodal logistics asset tracking. The tech leverages mature cellular infrastructure and offers kilometer-plus range with low power consumption enabling long battery life. While shipborne, a cellular IoT asset tracker based on a Nordic nRF91 Series SiP, for example, can store location data derived from GNSS and information from sensors about whether a container door has been opened, together with impact, vibration, temperature, humidity and other key data. When back in range of a cellular network the data can then be uploaded to the Cloud for access from anywhere.
Nordic’s nRF91 Series SiPs feature a multimode modem allowing the asset tracker maker to select NB-IoT or LTE-M connectivity. NB-IoT is useful for fixed assets while LTE-M is better suited for mobile tracking such as a shipping container on a truck or train. Different regions or carriers might support one or the other protocol; by supporting both, Nordic can offer a much more global solution, which is often a key requirement for asset tracking in logistics.
An example of the latest generation of asset trackers is Tavago Tech’s Tuff. The product uses Nordic’ nRF9160 and features a combination of cellular IoT, GNSS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE tech for indoor and outdoor tracking of personnel, cargo and assets. Tuff features a vibration sensor, a three-axis accelerometer for movement detection, a device tamper sensor and a sensor to detect if the device is removed from the asset.
The Controlant Saga Card also uses the nRF9160. In addition to cellular IoT connectivity, the Saga Card integrates an accelerometer, barometer and light sensor, to detect when and where a box has been opened and a product used, and when a box starts or stops moving.
When linked to Nordic’s Cloud Services, logistics companies can use nRF91 Series-powered asset trackers to determine location to sub-10 meter accuracy with GNSS. The Cloud Services also offer Assisted GPS (A-GPS)—which downloads satellite position data via LTE, reducing time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and extending battery life—or Predictive GPS (P-GPS). The latter downloads up to two weeks of predicted satellite position data over LTE, not only saving power but also reducing LTE data costs compared with cell-based location services.
If battery life is of overriding importance, location precision (with accuracy down to 200 meters) can be traded-off against energy consumption by taking advantage of Nordic’s Cloud Services’ single- and multi-cell (SCELL and MCELL) locationing technology.
SCELL uses a single cell tower to provide location details while consuming little device power. It is useful for indoor locationing, or locationing without requiring GPS. MCELL uses up to 17 cell towers and trilateration to determine the device location. It offers greater accuracy than SCELL at the cost of a little more energy consumption.
High levels of integration, low power consumption and small size are key factors for developers building asset trackers. Nordic’s nRF91 Series incorporates an application processor, Flash and RAM, LTE-M/NB-IoT modem, RF Front End, GNSS and more into a single package. This high level of integration simplifies design, improves efficiency and saves space. And efficient operation extends battery life or allows for the use of more compact batteries for the same battery life. In some cases, low power consumption can even allow the asset tracker to run from harvested energy alone.
Nordic has recently taken things a step further with the launch of a new addition to the nRF91 Series, the nRF9151 SiP. The solution sets a new standard for highly integrated, low power consumption and compact SiP solutions specifically designed for cellular IoT applications. The high efficiency of the nRF9151 SiP allows asset tracker manufacturers to build lightweight, compact devices with long range and robust wireless connectivity, powerful processing capabilities and large memory capacity and which can run for years from a single battery charge.
More compact than its predecessor, the nRF9161—with a significant footprint reduction of 20 percent—the nRF9151 lends itself to asset trackers that are even smaller and lighter than previous designs. In addition, the nRF9151 SiP is designed from the ground up to minimize power consumption. It takes full advantage of the low-energy possibilities associated with cellular IoT technologies, such as Power Saving Mode (PSM) and eDRX.
With the volume of goods shipped around the world set to reach 15 billion tonnes by 2025 (according to the International Chamber of Shipping[3]), keeping tabs on everything will be a major challenge. But with the increasing availability of cellular IoT-powered asset trackers it’s a challenge that’s becoming just a little easier.
1. World Shipping Council: https://www.worldshipping.org/news/world-shipping-council-releases-containers-lost-at-sea-report-2023-update.
2. The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/when-shipping-containers-sink-in-the-drink
3. International Chamber of Shipping: https://www.ics-shipping.org/shipping-fact/shipping-and-world-trade-driving-prosperity/