# An Architecture for Reliable Transportation of Delicate Goods
## 3 Technical and Domain Contextualization
### Technical Options
The use of technologies like LTE-M or NB-IoT [25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30] could be an option, but it is important to consider that the transportation of the merchandise is many times done by boat or airplane, crossing geographical areas where these specialized communication technologies are unavailable, as well as other alternatives like GSM and LTE (or the now-being-deployed 5G). Further, even if they were available, there are other problems to consider. GSM, LTE or 5G communication require too much energy and are expensive for scenarios of continuous or frequent data transmission. To make it worse, it might be necessary to access a global communication provider. The problem, however, is that there are none for GSM/LTE/5G technologies. Another possibility could be satellite communication, for which there are global providers, and which is available in any part of the globe and very reliable. However, commercial satellite communication was mainly designed to supply telephonic communications for remote areas, where the use of cellular networks is not feasible (like in the middle of the ocean or in the remote wilderness), being essentially focused on providing the service to make and receive voice calls. Data communication is also possible, but the bandwidth is limited, being essentially constrained to text messages, emails and access to light web content (without images or video). Nevertheless, it would be enough for the type of application targeted by our architecture, if not for two issues. The first one is the cost of the devices/technology and of the communication, that are quite expensive compared with the cost of cellular communications (like 4G), therefore making it suitable only if no other solution is available and if the merchandise value justify such option. The second problem is related to the energy necessary to power this technology, which is not compatible with the present requirements. Other possibilities based on satellite communication might be available on the forthcoming 6G context [31; 32; 33; 34] with the development of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) aiming to promote ubiquitous and high-capacity global connectivity, with direct support for IoT. Or, as result of the initiative of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), to integrate satellite and terrestrial network infrastructure in the context of 5G. Nevertheless, this will take time, because there are technical challenges to be solved, standards to be met, the need to develop and put into orbit new satellites and even define new models of commercial exploration. Another option is to save all the collected data on the local data storage of the device (flash memory) and then, when the merchandise is delivered to the customer, extract it from the device, using a sensor network technology with a gateway to the cloud, where the data is made available for the players involved. This option is not only more economical than the always-connected approach, but it is also relatively simple to deploy. The device is parameterized according to the agreed conditions for transportation, attached to the merchandise, and nothing more needs to be done until it is delivered to the recipient, when the data is finally collected. Data can be contextualized into a relative time reference that, on delivery, can be converted to a universal time reference. Indirectly, this permits to identify the operator that was responsible for the transportation when the non-compliance occurred, thus contributing to achieve part of our goals. In addition to data collection and transmission, other aspects must also be taken into account when designing the solution. One of them, and a critical one for anyone considering adopting the solution, is the acquisition/installation and operating costs. Some merchandise, like art, high precision devices and companion or specially bred animals are quite valuable. But other, more common merchandise, like food, might not be.