# Development of a Multi-Radio Device for Dry Container Monitoring and Tracking
## 1 Introduction  
The standardization of logistics has made faster and more efficient connectivity between different parts of the world possible, facilitating international trade significantly and contributing to the spread of globalization. Ninety percent of the freight is shipped by sea travel in dry containers. Although goods loaded in dry containers generally do not require specific environmental controls, damage to contents, delivery delays, theft or loss during shipments are not uncommon. Cargo ships can transport up to several thousand containers, and thanks to their increasing sophistication and digitization, they are becoming increasingly efficient. The demand for marine cargo services is ever-increasing in the supply chain, and therefore, it is crucial to know the status of not only the freight as a whole but of each individual container. Moreover, for some new types of merchandise, such as Electric Vehicles (EVs), there is a growing interest in the possibility of transporting them via containers on container ships. The current regulations of maritime transportation safety do not currently detail any additional equipment or specific vessel requirements to address the shipment of EVs in containers. Despite that, EVs are considered dangerous goods with a specific IMDG (International Maritime Dangerous Goods) code and may be stowed with other IMDG cargoes; therefore, shipping companies are encouraged to assess their own protocols and procedures and proactively implement appropriate additional safety measures, intended to best enhance their own vessels' safety and to protect their crew, their vessel, the cargo and the marine environment. Thus, for EVs and many other kinds of freight, it is very beneficial to know that the intensity of mechanical shocks, temperature, humidity and pressure of the container arewithin a certain threshold. For these reasons, shipping companies primarily, as well as other actors in the logistics chain (freight forwarders, port and customs authorities, shipment clients) are showing a strong interest in equipping all dry containers with a real-time monitoring and tracking device. The tracking devices should be able to transmit data from each container in real-time and thereby make supply chains more transparent and efficient. For example, they can supply location data based on GPS, measure ambient temperature and monitor any sudden shocks. The devices should integrate the latest energy-harvesting technology and low-power consumption techniques to ensure that they have ultra-long service lives with high-rate data transmission. The digitalization of maritime transportation for dry containers is a complex challenge that requires the development of a global operational monitoring system at every stage of the containers' intercontinental journeys (on land and at sea). The challenge has been taken up by the project \"5G Smart Edge Node and Smart Objects Enabling Reliable Services Extended All over the Seas\" (5G SENSOR@SEA), funded by the Artes 4.0 program of the European Space Agency [1]. The project realized the so-called \"5G Global Tracking System (5 GT System)\", enabling several different logistic applications relying on massive IoT, OneM2M compliant [2] platforms, as well as satellite networks, to collect data from dry containers when the vessel is in open sea [3]. The 5 GT System comprises an NB-IoT framework on top of a hybrid terrestrial-satellite network, providing information coming from the cargo-ship scenario (maritime domain) and port terminals (terrestrial domain) to a oneM2M IoT cloud platform, making it available to the customers' application (see Figure 1). A fundamental component of the 5 GT System is the monitoring and tracking device placed on dry containers, the so-called Container Tracking Device (CTD). It was designed and developed by CNIT researchers, starting from the creation of a prototype and culminating in the engineered device used in final tests conducted in intercontinental navigation.