Transportation quality monitor using sensor active RFID
Kohei Mizuno, Masashi Shimizu
NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, NTT Corporation
1-1 Hikari-no-oka, Yokosuka-Shi, Kanagawa 239-0847 Japan
{mizuno.kohei, shimizu.masashi}@lab.ntt.co.jp
Abstract
A number of pilot tests have been done to confirm
RFID’s performance at the supply chain
managements. In these cases, RFID work as the
bar cord systems that can connect their IDs to
databases. The passive RFID system has been
used in these pilot tests to meet the severe cost
requirements. The result of these tests pointed out
some week points of passive tags as
1)Communication range changes depend on
material 2)Reader and Tags antenna pattern make
null position 3)Reflection waves come from wall
and ceiling make null position.
The active RFID systems are expected to solve
for these points. Additionally sensor capability
can be loaded. We made sensor active RFID with
LF (Low Frequency) module and installed these
active RFIDs in an actual container to acquire
movement history and the sensor data. As a result,
we find our sensor active tag has the capability to
acquire a movement history easily with low power
consumption without GPS.
1 Introduction
Much of the attention has recently focused on
the Active Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID).
Active RFID uses an internal power source
(battery) within the tag to continuously power the
tag and its RF communication circuitry, whereas
passive RFID relies on RF energy transferred
from the reader to the tag to power the tag. Active
RFID has neither constraint on power and can
provide communication ranges of 100 meters or
more. Therefore it is suitable for active RFID to
use for container tracking system because
Container yard (CY) is so large and can save the
number of the reader to cover all of the CY[1][2].
Furthermore, active RFID has other advantages.
Active RFID tags are constantly powered,
Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium
on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINTW'07)
0-7695-2757-4/07 $20.00 © 2007
whether in range of a reader or not, and are
therefore able to continuously monitor and record
sensor status, particularly valuable in measuring
temperature limits and container seal status.
Additionally, active RFID tags can power an
internal real-time clock and apply an accurate
time/date stamp to each recorded sensor value or
event.
In this paper, we introduce the container
tracking experiment from Yokohama Port to
Kobe Port with our active RFID Systems. The
results show that our active RFID system has the
capability to acquire a movement history and
sensor data easily with low power consumption
without GPS.
2 Experiment Overview
We had the container transportation experiment
from Yokohama to Kobe in Japan Sep 2005. Fig1
shows the experimental map. A detailed schedule
of the experiment is shown as follows.
NYK Shin-Sugita Training Institute
Port Island PD Center
P6 P1(Position Tag)
NYK Yokohama Container Terminal
P2
GPS Trace of container ship
NYK Kobe Container Terminal Container Ship
P4(Crane) P3(Upper Deck)
P5(Control Center)
Fig1. Experimental map
1st DAY
AM 12:50 The container track left P1 as
shown Fig1.
PM 01:44 The container track passed the gate
of Daikoku Wharf in Yokohama Port (P2).
PM 02:08 The container track moved to the
 inventory location in the container yard by Container tag (Fig3)
trailer. -equips RF transceiver, thermister, GPS, GPS
PM 02:09 The container track moved to the antenna, and serial-IrDA inverter as shown in
inventory location in the container yard by Fig3.
crane. -receives the RF beacon from position tag and
stores this event to its memory.
2nd DAY -if it receives the LF signal from LF gate, it
AM 11:15 The container is moved to the sends the RF beacon and stores this event to its
container ship (P3) by the trailer. memory.
AM 11:51 The container is moved to the -acquires the temperature data at regular
container ship by the crane. intervals, and stores this value to its memory.
PM 4:07 The container ship left Yokohama -sends tamper signal if seal sensors are open
Port. irregularly.

3RD DAY
AM 6:59 The container ship arrived at the GPS Antenna
Nagoya Port.
AM 4:44 The container ship left Nagoya
Port. Serial-IrDA
Converter Container
4TH DAY Tag
AM 8:12 The container ship arrived at Kobe
Port. Thermistor
AM 8:34 The container was lowered by the GPS
crane (P4) from the container ship to trailer. Terminal
AM 9:07 The trailer passed the gate of Kobe
Port (P5) Fig3. Container Tag
AM 9:32 The trailer arrived at Port Island PD
center (P6). LF Gate (Fig4)
-equips LF transmitter, LF antenna and serial
3 System configuration interface as shown in Fig4.
Fig2 shows the experiment system -sends the LF beacon intermittently.
configuration.

Yokohama Port Kobe Port

container tag shipping container tag

position
tag
position
tag
PDA PDA

Reader NW Reader
LF Gate LF Gate

Server

Fig2. System configuration

Fig4. LF Gate
This system consists of container tag, Reader,
LF Gate, PDA, and server as shown in Fig2. Each
Position Tag (Fig5)
Function of those equipments is shown in detail
-equips RF transmitter, RF antenna and serial
as follows.

Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium

on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINTW'07)
0-7695-2757-4/07 $20.00 © 2007
 interface as shown in Fig5. Fig.7 PDA
-sends its own ID and time.
RF and LF specification are as follows[3][4].
Carrier Frequency 426MHz
Data rate 2.4kBaud Manchester
RF
Modulation FSK
Power 0dBm
Carrier Frequency 125kHz
LF Data rate 150baud NRZ
Modulation OOK

Table.1

Experiment 1
In Kobe Port, we measured the RSSI of
Fig5. Position Tag
beacons from position tags. The contour grid of
RSSI is shown in Fig8.
Reader (Fig6)
-equips RF receiver, RF antenna and serial 700m
interface as shown in Fig6.
-receives the RF tamper signal from container
tag.

350m

Fig8. Contour grid

From Fig8, we find that one position tag covers

the half of Kobe port. Therefore we find that this
system is achieved easily by a few position tags
to cover container yard.

Experiment 2
Fig6. Reader
On the container ship, we tested whether the
beacons from position tags are received by the
PDA (Fig7)
container tag or not.
-gets the data from container tag by IrDA
interface. Position Container
-stores the data and send it to the server by Wi-Fi. Tag Tag
P3

Position
Tag

Fig9. Experiment system on the container ship

First, container tag is fixed in the center of the

container ship, and position tag is moved around
of the container ship. The result is shown as

Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium

on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINTW'07)
0-7695-2757-4/07 $20.00 © 2007
 Fig10. Almost the beacons from position tags can in the container is acquired in detail.
be received at the container tag.

Fig10. Receive status of container tag

Next, position tag is fixed in the center of the

container ship, and container tag is moved around
of the container ship.
The result is shown in Fig11. Same as Fig10,
almost of the container ship, the beacon from
position tag can be received.
Fig13 Temperature history
4 Conclusion
We made sensor active RFID with LF module
and installed these active RFIDs in an actual
container to acquire movement history and the
sensor data. As a result, we find our sensor active
tag has the capability to acquire a movement
history easily with low power consumption
without GPS.

Fig11. Receive status of container tag

References
[1]http://www.oak.dti.ne.jp/~gaku/ubiken/doc/03
0924/ntt-d.pdf
Experiment 3
[2]http://www.ubiquitous-forum.jp/documents/
From the warehouse at Yokohama to the
[3]http://www.apmc-mwe.org/mwe2005/ja_progr
warehouse at Kobe, we tested whether the
am_04ws05.htm#WS18
container tag can check and record the place
[4]http://www.nikko-pb.co.jp/magazines/ba/05m
where it passed. The result is shown in Fig.14.
oku3.html
X-axis shows time and Y-axis shows the ID
number that container tag received. From Fig12,
we can see that our system can take the history in
the present location of the container tag easily
without GPS.

Fig12. ID reception history

Fig13 shows the temperature history of

container tag. As shown in Fig13, the temperature

Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium

on Applications and the Internet Workshops (SAINTW'07)
0-7695-2757-4/07 $20.00 © 2007