Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless Security: Can Trucking Afford it?

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 16:16:05 -0500

Wireless Security: Can Trucking Afford it?

February 14, 2003 8:32am

Combining low cost and high accuracy, chips that use GPS (global positioning satellite)
signals to
identify location are cropping up in mobile electronic devices of all types, from cell
phones to car
audio systems. With access to wireless communications networks also widespread, it's no
wonder
that the general public believes it should be a simple matter to monitor trucks and make
sure they
aren't turned into terrorist weapons.

Charles Schumer, the senior U.S. Senator from New York, thinks it's a good idea, at least
for trucks
carrying hazardous materials. He's already made a public call for regulations requiring
just such remote
security systems. So does the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which
is currently
sponsoring a demonstration project to look at remote monitoring technology. And the
concept seems to
have wide public support as a simple, effective method for ensuring that trucks can
continue delivering
goods without becoming a threat to our domestic security.

Trucking, more than any other single industry,
has already embraced wireless technology as
a powerful tool for improving the productivity of
its drivers and vehicles. GPS location data
transmitted wirelessly has been part of the
everyday operation for most truckload carriers
for years, and fleets of all types are rapidly
moving to asset management systems that
rely on the technology. At first blush, fleet
executives are just as likely as the general
public to consider wireless security
applications to be a relatively simple extension
of existing systems.

But is it? Or will security duties require
significantly different wireless systems that
cost a good deal more without delivering any
offsetting gains in productivity?

From the start, security has been one of the key reasons for fleets to adopt wireless data
systems,
according to Michael Brown, vp-marketing for Aether Systems. “The original market demand
was driven by
customer service because some shippers required tracking,” he says. “Then fleets realized
there were
substantial productivity gains to be had. But the ability to recover a stolen trailer or
to receive emergency
messages from drivers was also an important feature for early adopters.”

However, current security concerns, where there's much more at stake than a stolen load,
pose significantly
different issues than simple cargo protection.

Qualcomm, a pioneer in wireless systems for trucking, is serving as the lead technology
integrator for
FMCSA's project and has already built its own demonstration truck to showcase a number of
possible
security systems. Marc Sands, vp and division counsel for the company's Wireless Business
Solutions,
and its point man for the federal project, sees four important differences for so-called
homeland security
applications of wireless technology.

“First, coverage becomes something of an issue,” he says. “GPS tells the (onboard)
receiver where it is, but
to tell anyone else you have to transmit the location information over some type of
wireless network. If a
truck moves in and out of coverage, that could be an issue since there would be periods
when it can't send
an alert. The U.S. military already requires complete coverage for munitions movements.”

“Second, drivers have to be able to send a panic alert that provides an immediate
notification and location,”

Sands says. “That alert will have to be routed to multiple locations, and it may be useful
to have a remote
device that lets a driver trigger an alert from outside the vehicle.”

The third attribute of a security system is reliability, which would also include
resistance to tampering.
Sands includes real-time identification of authorized drivers under reliability,
foreseeing a system that would
disable a truck if the security system was compromised or if an unauthorized person
attempted to move it.
Obviously, a system that was prone to false alerts or took too long to authenticate a
driver wouldn't be
acceptable.

The fourth important component of a wireless security system, according to Sands, would be
geofencing, or
the ability to identify a vehicle that leaves its planned route. The concept is simple,
“but geofencing can be
much more complicated than it sounds,” says Sands. “It requires running fairly defined
routes. You have to
decide how closely you monitor vehicles, how much latitude you allow them to deviate, and
how you'll
respond if they go off route.”

While some carriers currently monitor route deviation to help them inform customers about
delivery delays,
geofencing for security purposes “would take it to a different level, with automatic
alerts that carry different
layers of consequences ranging from simple notification to actually shutting down a
vehicle,” Sands says.
“And that involves connecting (the monitoring system) to truck control systems.”

The other complication with geofencing involves the power and complexity of onboard
hardware. With a
hosted system like Qualcomm's OmniTRACS, route information is stored at the network's data
center.
Location information is periodically sent from the vehicle to the data center, where is it
compared to the
planned route. If the data center sees a discrepancy, it notifies the fleet. A few
location reports a day are
good enough for customer service purposes, but for a security system updates would have to
be far more
frequent. That translates into significantly higher communications costs.

ROUTES ONBOARD

The TruckSecure system recently unveiled by Delphi Electronics takes the opposite
approach, storing all
route coordinates onboard a vehicle with its TruckPC.

“Onboard navigation allows us to program the unit with the intended route, and if it
determines the truck has
left that route, it can send out an alert or shut down the vehicle through a connection to
the engine controller
even if it can't (obtain a wireless connection),” says Dr. Robert Schumacher, general
director of Delphi's
Wireless Business Div. “The only way to track a vehicle in real-time and still hold down
airtime costs is to
make most functions autonomous onboard the vehicle. But that requires software, processing
power and
memory.”

There's also the added complexity of downloading specific route coordinates to an entire
fleet of vehicles,
especially if those routes change dynamically. Schumacher believes fleet management
software could be
adapted to automatically generate routes on dispatch and transmit them to onboard units
without any other
data entry than points of origin and destination — but such interfaces with routing
systems still have to be
developed.

Another approach, he suggests, might be statically programming all fleet units with
security-sensitive
“no-go” locations such as dams or government office buildings that would trigger
geofencing security
measures.

PeopleNet Communications uses just such an approach for the geofencing feature of its new
PACOS
system. Onboard units carry coordinates for specific points such as delivery or pick-up
locations. When the
truck's GPS system determines it has reached one of those coordinates, it sends a wireless
notification to
the fleet and/or customer. Expanding that feature to monitor routes, or what he calls
“geocorridors,” could
be done with existing technology, says Brian McLaughlin, marketing director. “But you
can't do it with a
dumb box,” he says.

While both hosted and onboard approaches to geofencing have advantages and disadvantages,
Sands
believes the most practical approach will probably fall somewhere in the middle, with
different types of fleets
using the system that best fits their specific operational characteristics.

The issue of wireless network coverage also gains new complexity when you add security
requirements to
the mix. Satellite systems offer complete coverage even in the most remote areas, but lose
contact with
satellites when a roof, underpass, urban canyon or other obstruction blocks vehicle
antennas.

Land-based systems using the analog cellular telephone networks can reach into buildings
or other
structures that might block a satellite signal, and their antennas are much smaller,
making them easier to
hide in an unobtrusive location. However, coverage can be spotty once vehicles leave
populated areas or the
interstate network.

Next-generation digital networks that offer the potential for better, lower cost wireless
applications will also
eventually replace analog systems. Digital networks, however, are still far from
nationwide, and their
build-out has been slowed by the poor economic conditions in the telecommunications
industry.

Multimode systems solve coverage problems by using satellite communications to fill in
holes in land-based
system coverage, but the tradeoff is added complexity for onboard hardware.

In other words, no one wireless network can satisfy the requirements for all fleet
security systems. As with
geofencing, each fleet will have to choose the network that best suits its particular
operation.

A local fuel-delivery fleet, for example, might choose a digital land-based system that
gives them excellent
coverage within their limited operating range, but allows them to cost-effectively move
larger amounts of data
for closely monitoring movements, valve openings and a variety of other security-related
parameters.

On the other hand, a truckload carrier with national operations might need the coverage of
a satellite
system, unless it finds that its routes are appropriate for analog cellular coverage. A
multimode network
might work best for a regional or national fleet operation that finds its vehicles
traveling in and out of
land-based network coverage.

QUESTION OF COST

While security raises a number of these complex issues, it's clear that the technology for
protecting trucks
against hijacking and other terrorist security risks already exists. As is often the case
in trucking, the real
question is how fleets will pay for it.

“It's hard to justify even locks on a cost basis,” says Ed Mushill, director of sales and
marketing for Terion,
which currently markets a trailer-based tracking system. “But there's a proven ROI from
productivity with
tracking, and that productivity gain pays for the security functions. The need for cargo
security is urgent, but
it can come with better productivity. Fleets can have both.”

“Obviously, making cargo and country more secure is tougher than just knowing where an
asset is,” says
Aether's Brown. “But the core technologies we use for productivity — wireless data and
data management
— intersect to a large extent with the tools we need to improve security. Extending those
productivity tools
in security is a logical step. Not easy, but logical, and it can be done without turning
everything else upside
down.”

In Brazil, fleets turned to Qualcomm looking for a way to combat hijacking and then
discovered the
productivity benefits, says Sands. In North America, wireless data is following the
opposite path.

“Clearly security and productivity are compatible,” says Sands. “If we leverage existing
technology, security
doesn't have to cost a lot more. The real challenge is making sure we offer flexibility.
Operations are so
different, we need the ability to scale layers of security based on load type.”

While the majority of truckload carriers have already made the initial investment in
wireless systems, for
many other types of fleets security demands will bring their first experience with the
technology. “Anything
that provides better security also provides the opportunity to improve productivity,” says
Schumacher. “Sure,
it will require additional investment to acquire and use a (wireless) fleet security
systems, but once a fleet
has made that investment, it should reduce life-cycle costs overall.”

At Nextel Communications, “All of the clients we're talking to now are asking about
security,” says Henry
J. Popplewell. “In the past, our business was largely driven by asset utilization, but now
security is the
top-of-mind-topic among fleets.”

“Most new customers want to talk about homeland security issues, and several are already
moving ahead
to implement systems where the primary driver is security,” adds Brown. “But any company
would be
shortsighted to draw the lines at a single issue like security and turn its back on the
productivity and
customer-service benefits [of a wireless system]. The ROI from those benefits is just
lying there.”

It's highly likely that trucking, or some portions of the industry, will adopt wireless
security systems in the
near future. Not only are the general public and regulators in favor of monitoring
potentially dangerous cargo,
but fleet executives are also beginning to see a business case for proactively addressing
the issue of
homeland security.

The key to successfully adopting those systems, however, will be identifying the potential
value beyond
security and figuring out how to realize that potential. Otherwise, fleets could find
themselves with nothing
but expensive, high-tech padlocks.

Protecting Precious Cargo

One of the more unusual wireless security applications has to be a system to track school
kids recently
installed by Nextel Communications,

Currently being used in two cities, the system scans bar codes carried by students as they
get on a school
bus, automatically adding GPS location information to each scan data file. When students
leave the bus,
they again pass their bar codes by a scanner, and the system notes their departure
location.

“It provides peace of mind for everyone involved,” says Nextel's Henry Popplewell. With
accurate pickup and
drop off records, schools are using the system to combat truancy and to reassure parents
that a sleeping
child isn't accidentally left on the bus when it's parked at the end of its run.

“Cargo could be tracked the same way,” says Popplewell. “It's already being done in
package delivery and
could be easily be extended to general freight and LTL operations. And with that kind of
supply chain
visibility, it's just a short step to security applications.”

http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=query_displaynews&q=NEXTEL&so=&dc=&ro=&ed=&sd=&s=1&boldtext=NEXTEL&sym=&doc_id=NR200302142500.8.2_07c4013847c18a49

--
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/