The Industry and Challenge

The asset tracking market has witnessed exponential growth in recent years with the contribution of boosted IoT technologies, as of February 2023, there are over 15 billion connected devices worldwide, and the figures keep increasing. Managing the assets effectively can significantly improve the visibility and operational efficiency for enterprises such as fleet management service provider, logistics company, equipment manufacturer, etc.

However, there are several challenges in traditional tracking management:

Limited visibility due to the discontinuous network connection, especially when the asset is passing through a valley or going underground, and moving across the ocean, the lack of signal can lead to delays in locating assets and making informed decisions.

A lack of real-time alerts will increase the risk of loss and theft. For high-value assets or environment-sensitive assets such as diamonds, medicals, and fruits, timely alerts when they are away from the designated area or temperature are vital to the owners.

Fibocom LTE Wireless Solution for Effective Asset Tracking

Cold-chain logistics

Cold-chain logistics is a management process for perishable products that require strict temperature control and real-time monitoring to ensure product quality during transportation. Operation managers usually deploy trackers and sensors in the vehicle to trace the shipping and monitor the temperature in real time. Compared with technologies like NB-IoT and LoRaWAN, 4G infrastructure has been widely deployed worldwide, the tracker embedded with the 4G communication module can collect and upload the data to the cloud non-stop. Meanwhile, by implementing the asset tracking system, the operation manager can view the visualized data in APP and receive alerts in the form of text messages or voice calls, thus enabling quick responses to potential issues and taking precautions before it happens.

Fleet management

In modern society, transportation vehicles are running in a coherent order with the empowerment of advanced technologies such as GNSS positioning, cellular technologies, AI etc. and the fleet manager can utilize these technologies to improve efficiency in greater extend. 4G tracker solution provides a comprehensive capability for fleet management:

• Equipped with high-precision GNSS, the manager can monitor the movement of vehicles, allowing them to optimize the tour based on the traffic status, ensuring timely delivery and fuel saving.
• Driver monitoring and vehicle maintenance: trackers embedded can collect data such as speed, braking, and idling. Drivers who do not perform as standard requirements will be asked for additional training and practice for safety purposes. In addition, the status of vehicles can be visualized through the data collected, and the manager will know when and where the vehicles need preventive maintenance.
• Geo-fencing is a virtual boundary set by the manager to protect the safety of assets. Once the assets being found outside the virtual boundaries, the manager will receive real-time alerts and be able to take action to redress the vehicle on track.

Tracking marine containers

A marine container endures a long-term transportation cycle on the ocean, which has to equipped with a tracking device that contains a 4G cellular module, a GPS receiver, temperature sensors and vibration sensors etc. By leveraging the 4G and Non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication technology, the management, security, and efficiency of maritime cargo movements will be improved:

• Non-stop tracking from land to ocean, the 4G-enabled tracking system is able to connect the container to the port system, the owner of container will be overseeing the entire process of container shipping away from the port and arrive at destination. The additional support of satellite communication will also help the owner to monitor the real-time location even in the middle of the sea.
• Geofencing and Route Optimization, the weather situation on the sea is hard to predict precisely, constant wind or storms will disrupt the original route. When a container enters or exits zones that is outside the virtual geo fence, the system triggers notifications and alerts to the operator based on the data collected via sensors, GPS, allowing operator to make informed decision on the route optimization.
• Safety alerts: when the container is shipping away from supervised zone, the potential of hijack will be increased. Tamper-evident seals and door sensors can be integrated into the tracker to detect unauthorized access or container tampering. Alerts will be sent if any irregularities are detected.

Recommendation products

Fibocom L610 and MC610 is a series of LTE Cat 1 bis modules, designed to meet the medium-rate connectivity for massive IoT applications. Adopting LCC + LGA form factor, the module series supports various functions (BLE, Wi-Fi Scan, etc.), as well as a rich extension of interfaces (USB, UART, SPI, I2C, etc.), enabling much flexibility and ease of integration to meet various application demands of the IoT industry.

Fibocom MA510-GL (NTN) is a high-performance NTN module, which is tailor-made for the global IoT market. Developed on the Qualcomm® 9205S modem, the module supports GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellite communication as well as LTE Cat M/NB2/EGPRS cellular communication that is perfectly applied for massive IoT applications. Adopting LCC+LGA form factors, MA510-GL (NTN) integrates multiple interfaces such as UART/USB/I2C/I2S for industrial customers. Built-in with GNSS and equipped withe DRX capability, the module is suitable for IoT applications with low power consumption and ultra-small size, such as maritime transportation, emergency communication, and scientific research in remote areas while maintaining long battery life.