AVANTE Electronic Cargo Tracking Solution including Real-Time Container Security Tracking and Monitoring Solution, and Electronic Container Real-Time Security Tracking Solution Applications are covered by one or more of the following US patents:
7,513,425; 7,508,308; 7,501,954; 7,423,535; 7,382,255; 7,342,497; 7,319,397; 7,158,030; 7,098,793; 7,036,729; 6,961,000; 6,943,688; 6,883,710; 6,703,935; 6,696,954; 6,657,543; and other pending patents.
Many aspects of the Cargo Tracking Solution and particularly for cargo tracking security and safety application have been tested and verified by the EPA EVT program.
The U.S. EPA Environmental Technology Verification Program (ETV) provides credible performance data for innovative commercial-ready environmental technologies to help speed their implementation for the benefit of purchasers, permitters, vendors, and the public. Additional information is available on the ETV Web Site at www.epa.gov/etv
AVANTE Real-Time Container Transport and Supply Chain Security System and Monitoring Service offers Embedded RFID-Sensors for Inside Container Monitoring and Container Security Seal for Container and Trailer Door Intrusion Tracking
AVANTE provides web-based 24/7 end-to-end real-time container tracking security monitoring services using its RFID ZONER™-RELAYER™ container security devices, carrier-based and yard based fixed site communication links, and association of personnel badges to provide cargo container visibility and supply chain security management.
Leasing a set of SMART-TRAKKERS™ consists of:
- One set of RFID ZONER™-RELAYER™ container security device (two ZONER™-CTID tags and one RELAYER™-CTOR).
- Three personnel ZONER™-SSID badges.
- One carrier-based communicator of RELAYER™-CTCR (equipped with GPS, GPRS and SATCOM).
- Optional fix site installation of networks of nodal and real-time locating system of RELAYER™-RTLS readers along the supply chain.
- Flexible service charges based on scheduled regular reporting and real-time exception reporting. This cost effective supply chain security system and visibility solution does not require capital investment. Return of investment (ROI) in using this patented transport security system is immediate and can be tailored to your specific requirements.
- Finding out if cargo containers carry any weapons-of-destruction after they arrive at or near our ports will be too late!
The AVANTE container security tracking and monitoring services using RFID technology dramatically minimizes false alarms that have plagued the e-seal technology industry. An RF network of reader-monitors RELAYER™ outside the containers constantly monitors signal strength changes using ZONER™ tags. Quantitative measurements of distinct changes in the RF signals received by the monitoring network are made over a continuous span of time. This is unlike some systems that use a single-event based detection system. All of the common false positives that plagued all existing RFID intermodal container electronic seals due to invariable shocks and movements during transport are eliminated.
AVANTE container security tracking and monitoring services incorporates a secure onboard communication system that automatically reports any in-transit container intrusion or tampering immediately to the destination custom and port authorities. The tampered carrier can be inspected away from the destination port to prevent mass destruction.
AVANTE pioneered the use and patented the first RFID technology for tracking and tracing personnel and assets over multiple locations and IT networks. This Avante capability is strengthened by the issuance of multiple US patents on “Article Tracking System and Method” (US 6,883,710 and 7,036,729) along with multiple pending patents. “The basis of the innovation is gathering RFID tag data in different tracking stations that are distributed over wide areas. The data is shared between stations to users over the Internet and other communication means. This patented solution provides true end-to-end visibility to secure the supply chain,” said Dr. Kevin Chung, CEO of AVANTE.
This patented and pending patent active RFID ZONER™ tag and RELAYER™ network technology provides complete coverage of a ship’s deck and port terminal yard. The resulting intermodal container security system is dramatically affordable and lower in cost over other current offerings.
The ability to have constant communication of active RFID ZONER™ tags inside the containers with RELAYER™ reader on the outside ensures that the RELAYER™ is actually on top of the intermodal container and not removed and placed on another container. The capability of real-time reporting of any exception and intrusion provides the ultimate intermodal container security management and supply chain security management solution. Monitoring door locks for container security managment is widely acknowledged as hardly effective. There are just too many ways to tamper with an intermodal container without touching or destroying the e-seal on locks during the transit.
For more information on how AVANTE Supply Chain Security Monitoring Services provides return on your investment, please refer to the following brochures:
Electronic Cargo Tracking System and Solution, Intermodal Real-time Container Tracking and Rail Car Transport Security Tracking System for End-to-End Supply Chain Security System and Tracking Solution
Electronic Cargo Tracking Solution including container security tracking is only effective when the transport history is tracked and monitored from end-to-end with a holistic approach. As part of the global integrated supply chain security system and solution in providing monitoring services, AVANTE container transport tracking solution provides end-to-end real-time intermodal container and rail car cargo transport access and intrusion tracking using patented active RFID ZONER™-RELAYER™ container security tracking technologies:
- Real-time container intrusion and tampering detection based on AVANTE patented RSSI differential and multi-mode sensors from ZONER™-CTID tags placed inside the container received by RELAYER™-CTOR readers attached outside of the container when any opening of the intermodal container on any of the six surfaces is created. Additional container security seal using optical continuity is available for container and trailer door intrusion tracking.
- Transportation workers and staff are equipped with ZONER™-SSID badges that include a “transportation worker identification card” (TWIC), compatible passive card (ISO 14443), and an active ZONER™ component, beaconing every second to provide real-time location and proximity to the container for personnel safety and container security. In case of emergency, the driver and staff can press on the panic button to call for assistance.
- Carriers including trucks, rail trains, aircrafts, and vessels include a monitoring RELAYER™-CTCR that has an embedded GPS, GPRS and SATCOM to provide real-time locating of container and cargo. Unauthorized intrusion into a container and exceptions such as temperature excursions beyond normal ranges, excessive mechanical shock, absence of driver, etc., are reported in real-time.
- Driver and/or staff ZONER™-SSID badges are equipped with a “panic” button to call for help in real-time.
- A cost-effective real-time locating system (RTLS) based on received signal strength indicators (RSSI) from active RFID ZONER™ tags and badges received by a network of active RFID RELAYER™ readers can be installed quickly and in mobile settings. The RELAYER™-RTLS reader-monitor network is installed in ports, terminals, and yards to provide real-time visibility during temporary storage orwhile in transit. The same network is installed onboard vessels requiring real-time visibility.
- Containers and/or pallets or boxes of high value can use a RELAYER™-CTOR that is embedded with GPS-GPRS-SATCOM to provide independent real-time reporting status during scheduled times and exceptions or tampering information in real-time.
AVANTE believes that securing the supply chain through the securing of containers during transit could help to lower costs for consumers through the potential reduction of billion of dollars that are lost to theft and other spoilages. An effective container transport security system and supply chain security solution must include end-to-end container tracking and full container intrusion monitoring. Any container intrusion and container handling exception must be reported in real-time anywhere during intermodal transit.
AVANTE end-to-end intermodal container and cargo transport tracking and monitoring services provide many of the potential benefits of DOT's vision of "Intelligent Freight Technologies" that are critical in a containerized supply chain security system and solution.
| DOT’S Vision on Potential Benefits of Intelligent Freight Technologies @2007 | |
| Direct Benefits to Private Firms |
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| Direct Public Sector Benefits |
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| Indirect Freight Network Benefits |
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AVANTE Intermodal Container Tracking Solution and Integrated Supply Chain Security System and Monitoring Services Helps to Achieve Commercial Container Theft and Loss Prevention as well as Enhances National Security.
The AVANTE end-to-end intermodal container and cargo transport tracking and security monitoring services that provide real-time reporting capability rather than nodal or choke-point visibility is compatible to the intent of "Smart Box" or "advanced container security device" requirements. The active RFID ZONER™-RELAYER™ system and technologies using RSSI and embedded temperature, shock, sound, and light sensors are a true "container security device" that can detect all known intrusion and tampering with practically no false positives.
The full implementation of the AVANTE end-to-end intermodal container supply chain security tracking system as part of the cargo transport tracking and monitoring security system provides real-time reporting capability and meets almost all of the challenges listed below.
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Container Security and Supply Chain Security Challenges in Cargo Tracking Solution |
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Challenges |
Solutions |
| Impossible to inspect all of the containers. Not possible to check even 10%. |
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| Detecting tampering during transit. Preventing loss before arrival at the unloading port. |
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| Determination if any content may contain weapons of mass destruction (WMD) |
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The "Needle-in-a-haystack" syndrome is a challenge all container security professionals are faced with in trying to find potential weapons of mass destruction while handling millions of yearly container trips around the world. With the massive flow of products into the US, only a small percentage of the 20-30 thousand containers arriving daily at US ports are inspected. Any container and supply chain security management system and solution faces the same dilemma in tracking containers and monitoring containers in securing the supply chain without stopping the flow of world commerce.
Even with the support of the Department of Homeland Security through the Container Security Initiative (CSI), e-seal technologies for enhancing container and supply chain security remain flawed. While transportation companies have integrated active tags with outside seals or gaskets around container doors, such outside tags remain vulnerable to tampering. The most glaring inadequacy is that seal and gasket monitoring only reflects the integrity of the lock-and-seal on the container rather than actual intrusion into the container, information necessary to provide true container security. Additionally, adding sensors for light, heat and sound anomalies or to detect vibration in containers can yield "false positive" detection of intrusion or damages. Even the most fully integrated container monitoring system only reduces “false positives” from 2-5% to 1%. High “false positive” rates essentially render all of the currently proposed container tracking and/or container monitoring solutions ineffective when compared to the many advantages of AVANTE's SMART-TRAKKERS™ for complete end to end and real time cargo tracking.
Another obvious defect is finding an intrusion into the container has occurred when the container has arrived at our shore, is much too late for real threats such as a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Any real smart container system and container security solution must have the ability to detect and report unauthorized container intrusion during all phases of the container transport as close to real-time as possible.
AVANTE is the first to develop what we believe to be the first true RFID container security and supply chain management solution that can monitor container intrusion from any one of the six container surfaces. By using the signal strength attenuation characteristics intrinsic to the steel container box, two or more active ZONER™ RFID tags placed inside the container, a RELAYER™ reader placed on the outside of the container can monitor not only door openings but also cut holes as small as a few square inches can be detected. The communication between the ZONER™ tags inside the container and RELAYER™ reader outside containers and the ability to record the message of any exceptions such as excessive variation of signal strengths over an extended period of time (more than few seconds) will indicate the opening of a door or a cut hole. The presence or absence of “talks” between the ZONER™ and RELAYER™ provide additional security against potential tampering in this innovative container monitoring and container tracking system.
The ability to communicate between ZONER™ tags secured inside the intermodal container and RELAYER™ reader mounted outside the intermodal container ensures that the common false positives due to drop shock and vibrations during transport can be reduced if not eliminated. The ability to resolve the false positives to less than 0.1% or less is critical for the adoption of any intermodal container security system.
With addition of 6-10 RELAYER™ monitors along the perimeters of a ship deck and a grid of the same monitors spaced 100 meters apart in a container port and yard, and using the dynamic zoning from the received signal strengths, real-time locating of a container and any security breaches is possible. The incorporation of real-time locating capability along with intrusion detection at all time dramatically enhances the container and supply chain management system and solution.
AVANTE has thus developed this long-sought RFID container security management solution including container intrusion detection and reporting in real-time. Even a small opening cut through anywhere in the container can be detected immediately and data can be relayed to the onsite or onboard RELAYER™ reader-monitor network and/or to the authorities. This data is transmitted within seconds of an event happening anywhere along the transport route. ZONER™ tags and RELAYER™ reader-monitors are equipped with a magnetic holder to facilitate place-and-play without special tools and fixtures. When using ZONER™ personnel tags for authorized operators and staff, true real-time visibility of assets are realized with the AVANTE patented RFID network infrastructure.
The following are illustrations of AVANTE's Intermodal Container and Cargo Transport Security Monitoring System and Services:
