# An Architecture for Reliable Transportation of Delicate Goods
## 2 Market Analysis  
Ambrosus [13] is a blockchain-powered IoT network [14; 15] for food and pharmaceutical enterprises, enabling secure and frictionless dialogue between sensors, distributed ledgers and databases to optimize supply chain visibility and quality assurance. The enterprise behind it idealized a commercial exploration model and used the Ethereum blockchain [16; 17; 18] to support their own version of a blockchain-IoT platform, the AMBNET. For that, it provides several SDKs that can be used by third parties (Ambrosus customers) to initiate smart contracts [19; 20]. These track the entire lifecycle of a product, providing an immutable and tamper-proof record of the collected data and the conditions agreed for the transportation of the merchandise. Though sharing some of the goals of the architecture proposed by the authors, AMBNET is a possible implementation of only a specific part of the architecture proposed: the part which makes use of blockchains as a technical solution, with recognized advantages in maintaining and ensuring the veracity of the data. The use of blockchains is particularly interesting when it is not possible or desirable to have a centralized entity to guarantee the maintenance and veracity of the data. However, on the context of the architecture proposed in this article, there are no major reasons for using blockchains, other than the natural robustness resulting from its redundant and distributed nature. In fact, it is perfectly possible to have a centralized entity, provided it is not any of the companies that supply the transport service, as this would jeopardize the trust in the veracity of the data. Modum is an enterprise that supplies several solutions to track the transport conditions of merchandise. Being a commercial service, there are not too many details about the implemented solutions or even about their maturity. One of those solutions is ModSense One [21]. It monitors the temperature, and is composed of a physical device (that collects the data) and the background support, including mobile app, blockchain, dashboard and report service. It is an end-to-end solution, where the device is attached to the merchandise in the beginning of the transport, following a protocol that initiates the smart contract with the transportation conditions and relates the transportation ID label (a barcode that is attached to the outside of the packaging) with the device. The device collects data periodically and, as far as possible, ensures that it is available in real time to the final user. Despite being a complete solution, it is ideal for transport companies or companies with logistic activities, in the sense that they monitor their own resources and merchandises, and not to provide service guarantees to third parties. This is evidenced by the technical solutions available, some of which involve the installation of fixed routers (in warehouses or transportation vehicles) to forward the collected data to the cloud, and by the price of the solution and the specialization of equipment and software. ModSense One is not an open solution, designed to be widely adopted, with reduced installation and operation costs, focused on providing guarantees to customers, as intended with the architecture proposed in this article. However, both share many technological options and design considerations. Roambee [22] is an enterprise that supplies a versatile solution to track merchandise, equipment, machinery and vehicles, among other things, during transport and also in warehouses, or even in store. It is focused on the business market (enterprises) and not on the individual costumer. The solution is based on BeeBeacons, which are monitoring devices that allow, as far as possible, to provide data in real time. According to usage requirements, these devices can acquire the geographical position, temperature, humidity, pressure and even detect some organic gases.