The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), the standards group backed by nine of the world’s biggest container lines, has published a new set of IoT (internet of things) connectivity standards to ensure interoperability between smart container systems at the radio interface level.
The DCSA IoT Standard for Gateway Connectivity Interfaces, which can be freely downloaded from the DCSA website, includes radio standards for gateways on vessel, on land, at event locations and in handheld devices, providing an initial set of connectivity recommendations that are vendor and platform agnostic.
The standards can be implemented by vessel operators and owners as well as ports, terminals and other third parties, DCSA says, to assist carriers and supply chain participants in providing customers with an uninterrupted flow of relevant information regarding the whereabouts of containers and the status of their contents at any point along the container journey.
The new standards are the first of three planned IoT standards releases from the group addressing the connectivity requirements for reefer and dry containers, as well as the RFID registration of these boxes. Future releases will focus on data structure and handling, physical device specifications, as well as security and access management.
“We are thrilled to be introducing our first set of IoT standards for the industry,” said Thomas Bagge, CEO of DCSA.
“This release is an important step in enabling mass deployment of smart containers and forms the foundation of a group of standards that will address the industry’s most critical container use cases. Once implemented, our IoT standards will enable, for example, reefer container tracking, monitoring and controlling along the entire container journey, with no connectivity ‘blind spots’. This will provide more value to the end customer while increasing the efficiency of container operations.”
“Equally as important, we’re giving the industry a framework for interoperability that will allow stakeholders to create innovative IoT solutions that can be leveraged by any industry stakeholder, market supplier or service provider.”
