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[Satellite News 02-20-09] Pierre Parent, vice president and general manager of Numerex Satellite Solutions, is working on developing a hybrid satellite and radio frequency identification (RFID) system for the commercial enterprise markets intended to provide seamless, global asset tagging and tracking capabilities. The concept is similar to the idea of hybrid satellite cellular voice services — satellite will fill in the coverage gaps, where assets are most vulnerable to loss and theft.
In an interview with Satellite News, Parent described the challenges of developing a system that is able to track assets regardless of location. “When the asset or the container is moving through the supply system, the owner has possession and good visibility to track their assets. But when those assets go outside the last depot and are deployed out into the world — where they are most vulnerable to being lost or stolen — there is no reader network available and no visibility.”
Numerex’s tracking tag technology, the ST-694 GlobalTag, operates on the Globalstar Simplex Network, started out as a military application, and the commercial version will operate similarly to its military counterpart. When the tracking tag is reporting in satellite mode, Numerex feeds the information into its backend and converts the satellite serial number to an RFID tag number. For the military, that information is then launched back into the U.S. Department of Defense’s Automated Identification Technology (AIT) system.
Parent said customers would enjoy seamless coverage because they would not be able to tell when the system is operating in satellite or RFID mode. “Everything that is put in place that the military uses for their logistics management stays in place. They just get regular updates,” he said. “This has advantages in the commercial world as well. If hazardous materials or high-valued cargos are shipping on rail, those cars may be tagged with rugged RFIDs and experience the same service.”
While Numerex’s focus for the global RFID tags market largely has been in the emergency services community — with customers like the Red Cross, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. National Guard — the company is planning to expand into other commercial markets boosted by an interest in protecting shipments from the recent surge in piracy. “We see a growing demand as we are branching out to target markets in the container shipping industry,” said Parent. “It is an interesting industry to break into because the ownership of the containers varies between the shipper and the receiver. So it becomes difficult to put a long-term asset tracking tag on containers that one person doesn’t own. But we see growth in tracking company-owned containers.”
Numerex also is testing a standalone satellite tag, the SX-1. “For the Department of Defense, we’re doing the same type of integration on the SX-1,” said Parent. “We’ll spoof the standalone tag with an RFID number and launch that into the AIT so all of our tags can report seamlessly through AIT.”
As with all products associated with both the commercial and military sectors, the Pentagon has expressed security concerns. “We’ve done all we can do on the commercial side and throughout all of the satellite business to provide as much security as we possibly can,” Parent said. “… There is always the opportunity for us to do military-grade security should there be a demonstrated need and we can put together a business plan that makes sense to do that,” he said. “The concept has been kicked around a little bit with U.S. Transportation Command, but there is no action plan in place today.”
Parent said Numerex’s global tag is now in environmental climatic and Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) testing and should enter production in late spring. “We’re going to make sure that the environmental and HERO testing doesn’t show that we need to make any sort of modifications to the device,” he said. “Once we clear that hurdle, we’ll go into production. We would anticipate that within three to five months, products would become commercially available.
The Numerex SX-1 tag is scheduled for military testing in the summer, with the company’s hybrid tags testing in the fall.
In an interview with Satellite News, Parent described the challenges of developing a system that is able to track assets regardless of location. “When the asset or the container is moving through the supply system, the owner has possession and good visibility to track their assets. But when those assets go outside the last depot and are deployed out into the world — where they are most vulnerable to being lost or stolen — there is no reader network available and no visibility.”
Numerex’s tracking tag technology, the ST-694 GlobalTag, operates on the Globalstar Simplex Network, started out as a military application, and the commercial version will operate similarly to its military counterpart. When the tracking tag is reporting in satellite mode, Numerex feeds the information into its backend and converts the satellite serial number to an RFID tag number. For the military, that information is then launched back into the U.S. Department of Defense’s Automated Identification Technology (AIT) system.
Parent said customers would enjoy seamless coverage because they would not be able to tell when the system is operating in satellite or RFID mode. “Everything that is put in place that the military uses for their logistics management stays in place. They just get regular updates,” he said. “This has advantages in the commercial world as well. If hazardous materials or high-valued cargos are shipping on rail, those cars may be tagged with rugged RFIDs and experience the same service.”
While Numerex’s focus for the global RFID tags market largely has been in the emergency services community — with customers like the Red Cross, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. National Guard — the company is planning to expand into other commercial markets boosted by an interest in protecting shipments from the recent surge in piracy. “We see a growing demand as we are branching out to target markets in the container shipping industry,” said Parent. “It is an interesting industry to break into because the ownership of the containers varies between the shipper and the receiver. So it becomes difficult to put a long-term asset tracking tag on containers that one person doesn’t own. But we see growth in tracking company-owned containers.”
Numerex also is testing a standalone satellite tag, the SX-1. “For the Department of Defense, we’re doing the same type of integration on the SX-1,” said Parent. “We’ll spoof the standalone tag with an RFID number and launch that into the AIT so all of our tags can report seamlessly through AIT.”
As with all products associated with both the commercial and military sectors, the Pentagon has expressed security concerns. “We’ve done all we can do on the commercial side and throughout all of the satellite business to provide as much security as we possibly can,” Parent said. “… There is always the opportunity for us to do military-grade security should there be a demonstrated need and we can put together a business plan that makes sense to do that,” he said. “The concept has been kicked around a little bit with U.S. Transportation Command, but there is no action plan in place today.”
Parent said Numerex’s global tag is now in environmental climatic and Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) testing and should enter production in late spring. “We’re going to make sure that the environmental and HERO testing doesn’t show that we need to make any sort of modifications to the device,” he said. “Once we clear that hurdle, we’ll go into production. We would anticipate that within three to five months, products would become commercially available.
The Numerex SX-1 tag is scheduled for military testing in the summer, with the company’s hybrid tags testing in the fall.
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