Gateway Beacon Tracking via Short-Range Wireless
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Solution Overview
Problem
The high cost of tracking units for logistics and transportation due to expensive communication links, particularly satellite communication, and varying cellular network connectivity across countries, poses a challenge for cost-effective global tracking and data communication, especially for sensitive goods like food and drugs.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising sensor beacons with short-range wireless communication modules, such as LoRa, Bluetooth, or WiFi, that connect to gateways for data transmission to remote servers via the Internet, using FM radio for short-range data transfer, eliminating the need for satellite geolocation and leveraging smartphones or other devices for data reception and relay.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If satellite communication links are used for tracking units, then global tracking capability is improved, but communication cost increases prohibitively
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the tracking network into multiple gateways distributed globally, each handling local beacon communications. This segmentation allows beacons to connect to nearby gateways using inexpensive short-range wireless rather than requiring each beacon to maintain expensive satellite communication links for global coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
Gateways serve as intermediary devices between beacons and the central server. Beacons communicate data to local gateways via cheap short-range wireless, and gateways relay this data to the central server through the Internet, eliminating the need for beacons to directly use expensive satellite communication.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cellular network connectivity is used for tracking units, then communication infrastructure is improved, but connectivity reliability deteriorates due to country-to-country variation
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the existing Internet infrastructure and standard wireless communication protocols that are universally available. Gateways and beacons communicate using common short-range wireless standards, and data is transmitted through the globally accessible Internet, eliminating dependency on any single cellular network provider or country-specific infrastructure.
3Reliability
If expensive tracking units with individual communication links are deployed, then tracking coverage is improved, but device cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the communication function from individual beacons into shared gateways. Multiple beacons share the communication infrastructure of local gateways, which then share Internet connectivity. This consolidation eliminates the need for each beacon to have its own expensive communication module, significantly reducing per-unit costs while maintaining comprehensive tracking coverage.
Data Source
AI summary
A tracking system includes sensor beacons which include sensors to gather environmental data and a communication module configured with a short range wireless communication protocol, and gateways which are connected to a remote server via the Internet, which automatically connecting via the short range wireless communication to sensor beacons when a sensor beacon comes within range. The gateways receive data from the sensor beacon and relay the sensor beacon identity and data to the remote server.