Patent ID: 8855626

Claim:
A centralized freight asset monitoring system comprising: a first receiver comprising an interface that inputs communication signals, the receiver receiving in real time a plurality of wireless messages, in a plurality of differing first formats that are not an industry standard freight message format and are encoded particularly for bandwidth restrictions of wireless communication links over which the wireless messages are sent, from a plurality of intelligent electronic devices associated with a plurality of freight assets, the wireless messages containing information of a monitored event or condition of the respective freight asset, wherein the receiver stores the information in a memory that holds a database of the wireless monitoring system; a translator of the wireless monitoring system that translates in real time, utilizing a processor, the received wireless messages based upon the receipt in the respective first format into a message in a second format that is an industry standard freight message format used in an information system of a user of the freight asset; a transmitter comprising an interface over which the messages in the second format are transmitted for delivery into the user information system based upon the translation; a second receiver comprising an interface via which a message is received from the user containing a first command message to change a condition of a first freight asset associated with a first of the intelligent electronic devices and a second command message to change a condition of second freight asset associated with a second of the intelligent electronic devices; and a second transmitter comprising an interface that: responsive to receiving the first command message from the user, transmits, over the interface, the first command message to the first intelligent electronic device in the respective first format associated with the first intelligent electronic device; and responsive to receiving the second command message from the user, transmits, over the interface, the second command message to the second intelligent electronic device in the respective first format associated with the second intelligent electronic device that differs from the first format associated with the first intelligent electronic device.