Patent Document ID: 8620623
Application ID: 11598828
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A hierarchical network system architecture of multiple levels and distributed processing elements for a container monitoring system having a plurality of containers transported by one or more carriers, wherein the system includes at least one monitored container which includes sensors for monitoring at least two aspects of the physical status of the monitored container, wherein the system comprises: a data fusion center processing element which is configured to aggregate data from multiple monitored processing elements, wherein the multiple monitored processing elements comprise at least two carrier level processing elements; wherein each carrier level processing element is configured to receive and analyze container level data from a group of container level processing elements, and to produce and transmit carrier level data to the data fusion center; wherein each container level processing element is configured to receive and analyze sensor level data from a sensor level processing element, and to produce and transmit container level data; wherein the sensor level processing element comprising one or more sensors; and the sensor level processing element is further configured to produce and transmit the sensor level data to the container level processing element.