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Because of the unprecedented GLS Platform, SkyBitz is called on regularly to participate in many different types of security related partnerships. We have just completed one such partnership and have published the executive summary below. If you would like to have any additional information please email SkyBitz at info@skybitz.com

Results of Container Tracking and Monitoring from an Asian Port to the United States

Executive Summary
In the fall of 2003, under a grant from the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, a team was assembled to provide an international tracking and monitoring infrastructure for use in following sea containers in international trade. They used this infrastructure to track and monitor eight sea containers on, for practical purposes, a continuous basis from a point inland within Japan to a destination in the United States as they followed normal inbound container movements. Monitoring continued through the periods containers spent in container yards and while aboard ship, two locations considered to be particularly challenging. At any time during the movement of the containers back to the United States, team members could obtain status on a container, usually an hour old or less. Within minutes of any container intrusion or radiation alarm team members received emails notifying them of the event.

To create this capability, the team combined features from two commercially deployed tracking and monitoring networks into one overall tracking, monitoring, and information delivery capability. For wide area coverage the team adapted a North American satellite-based fleet tracking and monitoring service to an Inmarsat satellite covering the Pacific and Pacific Rim. To this they added commercially available local wireless yard and plant tracking and monitoring capabilities in areas of concentrated activity, specifically at ocean terminals and aboard ship. Each network provided strengths complimentary to the other in contributing to a continuous container watch.

Figure 1 illustrates the architecture used for the demonstration.The design is inherently redundant. Containers attempted report delivery using both reporting means at all times. They reported directly via satellite to a Northern Virginia operations center if satellite visibility was available. Further, if within a local wireless network, container reports also passed via that network to a local central node, which then used an autonomous satellite link or terrestrial link as appropriate back to the operations center. As a further aspect to its redundancy, the system also automatically adapted to use any beam on either of two satellites, depending on where best service was found.
Figure 1, The Demonstration Architecture

Each container had a dual mode intrusion sensor, detecting either an open door or any light intruding into the container, and a prototype radiation sensor. The radiation sensor alarms if gamma radiation levels are detected above a preset threshold within the container. The following figures illustrate the equipment on and in each container and wireless equipment installations placed aboard ship.


Figure 2, Satellite (left) and local wireless (right) terminals on the container top, near the door end. The narrow metal strips help protect the devices from impact.

Figure 3, Sensors as installed in each container. The right box contains the light sensor, the middle black box contains the radiation sensor, while the left device monitors the door.

The tracking capabilities of the system followed the containers on a journey across the United States to Los Angeles, in and around Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan, and around the Los Angeles area. While monitoring embarked containers for any alarms in real time, the system also tracked the container ship day by day on its return journey from Asia carrying the containers. Using the local wireless networks in the ports, the system identified and monitored the containers positively in each of the ocean terminals or on the ship. The following figures show some of the tracking history during the demonstration.


Figure 6, A portion of the tracking history across the United States as containers headed for Los Angeles early in the Demonstration. Higher numbers are later in time.


Figure 7, Tracking a container movement near Tokyo and Yokohama. Point 60 is the container yard near Yokohama. Point 54 is in the Tokyo area.

Figure 8, Monitored track of the container ship departing for the United States.


Figure 9, The container ship track as it approached the United States

On several occasions the system detected anomalous behavior not part of the intended demonstration, including flagging a forgotten container left in the Norfolk container yard, detecting a transshipment error in Chicago, observing a late container followed hour by hour on the rails to Los Angeles in its last minute (successful) attempt to make the ship departure schedule, and following three containers after their return to Los Angeles that were either misdirected or commandeered. On three occasions tracking information enabled team members and shipping companies to act on, and if elected, redirect, containers that would have otherwise been effectively lost. Figure 10 illustrates one such case.


Figure 10, Track of a container incorrectly dispatched North in Los Angeles, caught and turned around for delivery to the correct destination at point 62.

Over the duration of the demonstration the team processed over 2,000 position reports in the United States during the outbound movement, over 3,100 position reports while in Japan, and over 6,700 container status reports and over 3,700 ship position reports from the ship en route back. The local wireless network in Japan logged over 31,000 contacts with the containers in the yard during the week they were there. Each local wireless contact lasted only milliseconds, radiated only milliwatts, included identity, status, and other information, and repeated twice every four minutes on average, a normal rate for this network. Each satellite contact sent a 1.5 second burst with position and status information, or local wireless network information summaries. The team used a rather fast scheduled satellite position report rate for the demonstration in order to increase the data collected. The terminals reported alarms immediately.

On the whole, the Demonstration substantially satisfied its overarching objective: to maintain a sufficient and meaningful degree of continuous contact with shipping containers from the time of dispatch in Asia to final disposition in the United States to be useful for securing trade and improving shipping efficiencies. Here sufficient and meaningful contact is taken to mean an indication of status, and position if outside the container yard, on a roughly once-an-hour basis, somewhat less frequently if embarked on-board ship. The team considered this to be the degree of visibility needed to enable an operational container monitoring system to react in a timely way to an issue or threat.

The position and intrusion monitoring aspects of the architecture worked well during this demonstration, showing substantial promise as candidates for an operational approach to container security. The radiation sensor represented an earlier stage of product maturity. Its sensitivity to temperature changes caused a number of false alarms as expected, but it nonetheless offered an opportunity to begin work with such a sensor The supplier is continuing active development on an improved device offering better sensitivity and temperature compensation.

Work remains to improve further the performance and reliability of the system, to refine the architecture and optimize terminal and sensor designs for this mission and for cost and simplicity, and to develop a more robust and reliable backhaul, filtering, and data presentation scheme.

With this work, the Pacific Trade monitoring approach taken here offers promise as an important element of an effective overall trade security solution.
SkyBitz presently operates a supply chain and fleet tracking and monitoring service within the United States using satellite connectivity to small rugged tracking and monitoring devices emplaced on trailers, rail cars, and other mobile or remote assets. This service uses a proprietary technique that enables it to send multiple reports per day extending over years on AA batteries.