Intelligent Shipping Container Project

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Intelligent Shipping Container Project

• IMPACT INTEL

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Motivation Requirements

• Motivation
• Homeland security requirements (ACSD, MATTs)
• Dynamic supply chain
• Requirements
• RFID, environmental parameter sensing
• Communication capability
• Critical event reporting intrusion detection
• Lifetime requirements

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Intelligent Shipping Container System Architecture
Container
External Hosts
2.4 GHz internal network
Stargate
MICAz mote Attached to nearby containers
external Stargates. Proximity MICAz motes form an
ad hoc (multi-hop) inter-container network.
MICAz mote 2 2.4 GHz 100 Access point of
internal network and a node of inter-container
network.
2.4 GHz
GPS Receiver 100
Nearby PC/PDA E.g. computers at checkpoints or
the datacenter, handheld devices held by custom
officers and load/unload workers. Querying
current and history data and downloading database
from the internal database.
RFID Reader 500
51-pin
USB
Stargate 500 Managing Internal network
(hardware, power and security) processing data
and maintaining database processing queries from
external network and routing outgoing packets to
one of the two wireless interfaces.
MICAz mote 100
Ethernet
Sensors
802.11
MICAz mote 100
RS232
or
Remote Server Computers at the datacenter.
Collecting real-time data from containers,
managing database and responding to critical
event reported by containers.
Cellular Network
Sensors
PCMCIA
Compact Flash
Compact Flash Memory Card 2GB 100 Database
802.11 card or GPRS Modem1 100
MICAz mote 100

• Note
• Constrained by ports provided by the Stargate,
  only one of the two wireless methods, 802.11 and
  GPRS, can be installed.
• In this single-stargate setting, the mote
  attached to the Stargate has to be shared by the
  internal network and external mote network,
  a.k.a. inter-container network, which will
  increase contention and collision in both
  networks. Two antennae (inside and outside
  container) are required. To alleviate collision,
  an additional circuit, antenna selector, may
  help. But still, the mote cannot receive packets
  from the two network at the same time.

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Stargate Demo
MicaZ mote MTS310 sensor boards
Query command
Sensed data
Query results
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Intelligent Container Software Components and
Data Flow
External Hosts
Stargate
Internal Network

• MICA2 mote (TinyOS)
• Ad hoc networking management
• Neighbor discovery
• Routing protocols
• Security protocols.

RFID Reader w/ MICAz mote Periodical RFID reading
and reporting, event or command triggered RFID
reading, and reliable transmission control.
MICA2 mote driver
Inter-stargate forwarding if needed
Security component
802.11 card driver
Socket server daemon processing requests (web)
Radio management dynamically determining outgoing
wireless interface
Database accessing (web based)
Request manager

• PC/PDA (Win/CE/Linux)
• Network establishing
• Query generation and display
• Database management
• Socket server daemon processing voluntary reports
  and alerts
• Security management.

Sensor 1 w/ MICAz mote Periodical environmental
data sensing and reporting, event or command
triggered data sensing and reliable transmission
control.
GPRS modem driver
External network abstract
Database
GPS receiver driver
Data fusion, database management
Voluntary report and alert
Internal network abstract
System configuration, hardware management
(self-diagnoses, self-monitoring, watchdog
monitoring), power management
Serialforwarder (attached to UART)
Sensor network management

• Remote Server
• Query generation and display
• Database management
• Socket server daemon processing voluntary reports
  and alerts
• Security management.

Sensor n w/ TelosB Periodical environmental data
sensing and reporting, event or command triggered
data sensing and reliable transmission control
Socket server daemon processing sensing data
Legend command done as planed
data partially done
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Research Topics

• Energy efficient internal and external
  communication
• Synchronization
• Scalable container network
• Dynamic group assignment