S2CT Product Asset Monitors and Data Sharing Cloud

Asset Monitors – full description


Smart Supply Chain Technologies Asset MonitorsAn amazing $25 USD device, designed for bidirectional communications with other Highly-Metalized-Environment (HME) Sub GHz devices, sensors, interface devices, and the wide-area-network (WAN), the Internet, without requiring an underlying and costly telco data plan. An entire shipping terminal could be 100% covered by a HME Sub GHz communications network and provide terminal operations the ability to communicate with and track mobile assets anywhere in the terminal, those permanently in the terminal or just passing through, from the terminal's Private Asset Management Cloud.


S2CT Product Asset Monitors

Asset Monitors can be deployed at fixed locations or on mobile assets for a broad range of monitoring and management applications. They are fully customizable in terms of size and shape, with or without replaceable battery packs, battery pack size, optional primary / auxiliary external AC/ DC power, integrated and tethered sensors, custom software on top of a standard basic software layer, GPS and Wi-Fi communications. Asset Monitors were conceived to be deployed at fixed locations and on mobile assets to continuously execute their programmed monitoring task and to provide an interface to other third-party devices, reefer controllers and gensets for example, with years of reliable operation. Asset Monitors were also conceived to securely report to and be managed from their owner's Private Asset Management Cloud through a WAN connection provided by another device. Asset Monitors can range in cost between $25 and $50 USD.

Asset Monitors are primarily battery powered devices with battery life ranging from 1 to 3 years or even longer depending on the size of the battery packs housed within each device's enclosure. S2CT uses Lithium Thionyl Chloride (Li-SOCl2) primary cell batteries in either AA or C size format with circuitry to augment the peak current they deliver, in its prototype development kit. Asset Monitors and their enclosures can be designed to allow for replaceable battery packs. Asset Monitors can be designed to utilize external power, DC or AC to DC, opportunistically when it is available, to supplement their battery power or as their primary source of power with batteries for backup. Asset Monitors deployed in terminals, yards, and building will typically be externally powered with small battery packs for power backup. Li-SOCl2 cells can last as long as 10 years in a backup role.

Asset Monitors can come in a variety of shapes and sizes driven by their desired battery life, the number of batteries required to achieve it and accommodation for inside-the-enclosure sensors and external power connections. Asset Monitors can be permanently attached to a mobile asset like a container, genset, truck cab or trailer, with an adhesive, or temporarily attached, magnetically, to a mobile asset such that it can be easily moved from one mobile asset to another, from a container to another container or a chassis, etc. When equipped with an integrated magnetic metal detector, Asset Monitors can detect when they are attached to and detached from a metal superstructure and be programmed to store and communicate those events to the WAN when they occur. These features are easily designed into an Asset Monitor with S2CT's modular hardware and software and Ruggedized, Double Sealed IP67+, Universal Enclosure, reflected by the enclosure shape variations illustrated at the beginning of this paper and later when the 360° HME Sub GHz Fixed-point Asset Monitor is described.

S2CT's Asset Monitors are microcontroller based with application memory to support its HME Sub GHz Communications Protocol(1), Near-Field Magnetic Inductance(2) communications, DNA(3) Device-to-Device Data Security and S2CT and third party custom embedded software applications. S2CT clients often purchase custom Asset Monitors from one of S2CT's hardware partners and then provide their own custom value-added software on top of the S2CT basic application software layer. Asset Monitors have integrated non-volatile memory for storing the data they collect over time until it is successfully communicated to the device's owner. The data-logger is managed with a First-In, First-Out data retention system. The oldest data is overwritten by the newest data when the data-logger becomes full. Asset Monitor data-loggers are typically designed to hold 60 days of data. Asset Monitors have a temperature sensor integrated into their microcontroller module. This temperature sensor is primarily used to monitor and report the temperature inside the enclosure, for device health monitoring, but can also be used for sensing the ambient temperature around the Asset Monitor. Asset Monitors, as an element of their basic application software layer, support Over-the-Air software upgrades for both the basic and value-added software layers. Asset Monitors can even receive and manage software upgrades for the peripheral devices, sensors and interface devices, for example, that they are connected to and associated with.

Asset Monitors inherently support the HME Sub GHz Communications Protocol with DNA for secure device-to-device communications with other HME Sub GHz devices and the cloud they are programmed to communicate with and can optionally support Wi-Fi for WAN communications. HME Sub GHz Communications Protocol and its 433 MHz frequency have been specifically chosen for reliable communications in Highly Metalized Environments, like many areas encountered when traversing the global supply chain, shipping and rail terminals, freight yards, etc. S2CT has employed its considerable experience and expertise in electromagnetic theory, wireless communications theory and antenna design in analyzing the various communications radio frequencies, empirically and in the field, to determine which would be best, in terms of reliability around metal, spectrum licensing issues around the world and the power consumption of the underlying communications subsystem. 433 MHz was clearly the best choice for this application. Stack of Reefer ContainersThis comprehensive analysis also drove the development of S2CT's 433 MHz antenna, antenna array systems and the HME Sub GHz Communications Protocol. A typical challenge is to reliably communicate with all mobile assets in a target area, a container at the bottom of a stack of containers in the middle of the row, for example. Stacks can be six containers high or more and rows can be twenty or more containers wide, so the target container is buried. Quite a challenge!

All Asset Monitors support Near-Field Magnetic Inductance for "association", DNA pairing, with other devices they will be authorized to receive or send data to. This is secure Near-Field Communications (NFC), similar to that used by smartphone manufacturers for secure payments. The two devices, one typically already installed on a container, for example, are brought within an inch or so of each other. The NFC connection is made and the devices share their ID's for registration in their association-tables. Associated devices can be thought of as being in a local-area-network. From that point forward, the devices can quickly respond to an association challenge and exchange data freely. Non-associated devices can only exchange "pings", device IDs with timestamps.

Asset Monitors optionally support GPS subsystems, with a GPS module on the circuit board, software and a GPS antenna. GPS enabled Asset Monitors periodically acquire their geospatial positions, by inference the location of the mobile assets they are installed on, and incorporate that into their data streams, linked with their other data along with a timestamp. An Asset Monitor's Tilt Sensor might report a 23° tilt at 2016.05.04 05:14 at position 45.3173, -16.9598, for example. This GPS option is primarily of interest, and worth the additional cost for the Asset Monitor, to those that have mobile assets that spend much of their time outside of areas with HME Sub GHz coverage, on the road, for example. For Asset Monitor equipped mobile assets that spend most of their time in or traveling between areas with HME Sub GHz coverage, HME Sub GHz triangulation provides equivalent geospatial positioning, while within those HME Sub GHz areas. TriangulationHME Sub GHz position triangulation typically requires at least three fixed-position Asset Monitors to report receiving a signal from a Mobile Asset Monitor of interest, along with the strength of the received signal. From that signal data and the known geospatial positions of the three fixed-position Asset Monitors, the position of the Mobile Asset Monitor can be calculated, typically with about 1-meter accuracy. The accuracy of HME Sub GHz triangulation positioning can exceed 1-meter resolution by adding HME Sub GHz fixed-point Asset Monitors, in the area of interest, specifically to improve this triangulation accuracy by enhancing the amount of signal data used in the calculation. In some cases, HME Sub GHz triangulation with added fixed-point Asset Monitors can achieve accuracies well below 1-meter, approaching +/- 25 centimeters. An externally powered fixed-point Asset Monitors designed just for triangulation can cost as little as $15 USD.

Note that the "data" used for HME Sub GHz triangulation is not the data that the Mobile Asset Monitors are charged by their owners to collect and send to them, considered proprietary and private data in the S2CT cloud architecture. The S2CT cloud architecture treats "ping" data, limited to the device ID and timestamp, as the property of the HME Sub GHz "area" that has the ability to successfully ping Mobile Asset Monitors within its bounded coverage area. S2CT sees ping data and its use as directly benefiting the "operations" of these HME Sub GHz areas and indirectly the owners of the Mobile Asset Monitors through better management of their mobile assets. All HME Sub GHz Mobile Asset Monitors, deployed on Mobile assets that belong to and remain within a HME Sub GHz area, a terminal for example, and mobile assets that do not belong to and are transient visitors to HME Sub GHz areas, can be located and or tracked within the HME Sub GHz area.

The benefit to the area's operations is obvious, know where every customer mobile asset is within the area and know where every area-asset is and its operating status. 3D GUIWhere are the gensets, which are available, that have adequate fuel levels. 3D GUI on smartphonesThe S2CT cloud 3-Dimensional Graphical User Interface continuously presents this information along with related analytics and alert messages to the area's operations, at their desk, and to area personnel working in the coverage area on the smartphones they carry and use.

Asset Monitors communicate with other associated HME Sub GHz devices to collect, store and eventually send data to its owner's IP Address. Asset Monitors can support an unlimited variety of sensors: door sensors, door seals, tire pressure sensors, fuel level sensors, gas sensors, tilt and vibration sensors, to name a few. Asset Monitors can also support a variety of interface devices that communicate data and instructions it receives, from the cloud, to a particular piece of equipment, like an interface to a proprietary reefer controller or genset, for example. An Asset Monitor Interface receives a generic instruction from the cloud, directly or indirectly through a connection to a WAN, to change set-point temperature, change airflow, start a PTI, start the genset, etc. Proprietary software, from the reefer controller manufacturer, for example, in the Asset Monitor Interface device, translates this generic instruction into an instruction format that the reefer controller will understand. Asset Monitor Interface devices also receive data, potentially in a proprietary format, from the device they are interfacing to, again a reefer controller, for example, and send it to the IP Address provided by the Asset Monitor Interface. Customers design their own local-area-networks (LAN) of HME Sub GHz devices and count on them to seamlessly integrate and work.

Typically, a Mobile Asset Monitor executes its programmed tasks, accumulates data in its data-logger and waits until it opportunistically encounters a path to the WAN to upload its data to the programmed IP Address of its owner. Mobile Asset Monitors can connect to the WAN themselves if they are Wi-Fi enabled and encounter a friendly Wi-Fi Access Point. 3D GUIMobile Asset Monitors can also connect to the WAN through an HME Sub GHz connection to another device or to an established array of devices that has WAN access. A typical Asset Monitor deployment in a shipping terminal, rail terminal, freight yard or similar open space, might take the form of an established array of Fixed-point Asset Monitors blanketing the entire target area. Mobile Asset Monitors permanently in the target area and others just passing through it, connect and communicate their data to Fixed-point Asset Monitors configured into an area-array. If the receiving Fixed-point Asset Monitor is Wi-Fi enabled, it securely passes the data to the area's intranet and its Asset Management Cloud for disposition. Data from an area's Mobile Asset Monitor is deposited in the area's Asset Management Database for analyses and presentation to the area's operations. Data from transient Mobile Asset Monitors is forwarded to the IP Address provided by the Mobile Asset Monitor. If the array's receiving Fixed-point Asset Monitor is not Wi-Fi enabled then it securely passes the Mobile Asset Monitor's data to another array Fixed-point Asset Monitor within its range of communications. Asset Monitors have a communications range of approximately 40 meters, line-of-sight, or 80 meters in a 360° deployment. This process of passing the encrypted and encapsulated asset data from array device to array device continues until a WAN enabled device is reached.

S2CT offers a range of concept features specifically targeting this type of application with Fixed-point Asset Monitors. One such concept feature is a unique universal enclosure variation that couples a single Asset Monitor with three HME Sub GHz antennas, illustrated here, to create a 360° Fixed-point Asset Monitor. Fixed-point Asset Monitors ExampleNote that Asset Monitor enclosures are ruggedized, double encasements made of high impact polycarbonate plastic, double sealed for IP67+ water resistant. Fixed-point Asset Monitors ExampleThe Asset Monitor circuitry and the first HME Sub GHz antenna are housed in a long cylindrical cone, designed for mounting on a round pole, a light pole for example. This first cone will be mounted on the pole facing in an arbitrary direction to cover an approximate 120° field of communications. A second cone will house the second antenna system and will abut the first cone on the pole such that its antenna covers an adjacent 120° field of communications. The third cone will house the third antenna system and will abut the second and first cones such that its antenna covers the remaining 120° field of communications. Together, the three cones cover a full 360° with HME Sub GHz communications, approximately 40 meters in every direction from the center pole or 80 meters across.

An array of 360° HME Sub GHz Fixed-point Asset Monitors are associated with one another and deployed throughout the target area, with intersecting fields of communications, so as to achieve 100% HME Sub GHz communications coverage. Typically, Fixed-point Asset Monitors are deployed about 10 meters off the ground such that their communications fields spread downward and upward as well as laterally to best reach Mobile Asset Monitors on assets in the target area.

Fixed-point Asset Monitors ExampleFundamentally, the array of Fixed-point Asset Monitors is expected to reach all HME Sub GHz Mobile Asset Monitors within the field of coverage. As a secondary precaution, these Fixed-point Asset Monitors are so inexpensive that deploying another one in a problem area, just to further improve the reliability of the HME Sub GHz communications, is very feasible.

A number of the deployed Fixed-point Asset Monitors will also be Wi-Fi enabled. Note that Wi-Fi has a similar signal range to that of HME Sub GHz but its higher frequency makes it much less reliable in highly metalized environments. Deploying Wi-Fi in Fixed-point Asset Monitors, physically above the fray, makes their Wi-Fi communications with area Wi-Fi Access Points and the area's intranet much more reliable. Theoretically, a single Wi-Fi enabled Fixed-point Asset Monitor within an area array of Fixed-point Asset Monitors is adequate for any Fixed-point Asset Monitor in the array to get its data to the area's intranet. Having more than one of the Fixed-point Asset Monitors Wi-Fi enabled eases the communications traffic across the array. Wi-Fi enabled Fixed-point Asset Monitors at the area's gates would also be particularly useful for real-time HME Sub GHz communications with vehicles moving through them, getting gate and Mobile Asset Monitor data to the area's intranet and operations as the asset's journey through the area begins. Note that Fixed-point Asset Monitors might also be placed outside a terminal or freight yard to manage inbound vehicle traffic and even create staging areas to ease vehicle and data traffic congestion.

A 1 square km area will require approximately 170 Fixed-point Asset Monitors for 100% coverage. Fewer Fixed-point Asset Monitors might be deployed by creating islands of HME Sub GHz coverage around particular areas of interest, connected together with specific paths of contiguous HME Sub GHz, Wi-Fi-to-Wi-Fi or in the area's cloud. With an average cost of $35 per 360° HME Sub GHz Fixed-point Asset Monitor, the total area-array Fixed-point Asset Monitor cost will be approximately $6000 USD. Fixed-point and Mobile Asset Monitors can work with any cloud environment. S2CT Asset Management CloudS2CT can provide its clients a complete Mobile Asset Management Cloud Solution, just selected elements for the S2CT Cloud Solution Architecture or just the software to manage and translate data from S2CT architected devices.

Asset Monitor Connectivity

(1) HME Sub GHz is an Adaptive / Cognitive Communications Protocol designed specifically to achieve highly reliable wireless communications in highly metalized environments such as shipping terminals with thousands of stacked metal containers. HME Sub GHz is based on 433 MHz Radio Frequency, which is proven optimal for communications in these same highly metalized environments.

(2) Near-Field Magnetic Inductance is very similar to the technology that Samsung and others use for secure wireless payment transactions. Fundamentally, two magnetic fields intersect to form a continuity. In this use model, one field emanates from one device and a second field emanates from a second device. When these fields intersect they form a continuity that allows the devices to communicate with one another. Here, one device provides its ID to a second device. The second device, using some methods, verifies that ID is authorized for communications and associates it with its communications network for further communications.

(3) DNA is a hybrid PPK security concept for devices to authenticate themselves before communicating data between themselves that is based on devices randomly changing their private keys continuously over time and sharing the new key with devices they have previously been associated with.