Connectivity
When high-value mobile assets are lost or damaged, the bottom-line impact is greater than just the equipment. For example, several thousand dollars worth of seafood can be lost if a refrigeration trailer fails in transit. A shipping container carrying automotive parts — delayed by two days — could cause the plant waiting for those parts to lose production shifts. A bulldozer that sits idle at a construction site because it was not moved to the next job location does not generate revenue.
Cellular-powered asset tracking has become a critical business tool to prevent instances like these. It is used in various verticals, such as:
- Trucking
- Intermodal
- Construction
- Agriculture
Real-time location and status information about equipment optimizes business decisions. Fleet managers can route deliveries around traffic bottlenecks to meet customer delivery schedules. Fuel consumption and driver overtime can be reduced. Asset tracking also enables geofencing to identify and locate stolen or misplaced equipment.
Solar Power Ensures Tracker Batteries Stay Charged
Asset tracking devices need a reliable energy source for their global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver and the cellular transceiver that uploads data. Like a smartphone, an asset tracker recharges its battery through an external power source. That can be a challenge, as most equipment — like a shipping container — doesn’t have a power source that asset trackers can utilize.
Telic AG developed a tracking device to overcome that challenge. Telic Solar combines a cellular-GNSS module with a built-in solar panel. Measuring 350 x 100 x 20 mm in its IP6k9k-rated enclosure, it is compact enough to prevent equipment dislodge. Telic Solar includes Bluetooth® wireless technology that connects to sensors inside shipping containers and other equipment.
“Telic Solar is the ideal telematics unit for containers and swap bodies. It is very robust and can be used in all weather conditions. Telic Solar complies with the latest CE and RED Cyber Resilience regulations. It transmits its data in encrypted form directly to the customer’s server.”
— Rainer Rothmund, Head of Sales, Oberhaching, Germany
The Telit Cinterion Advantage
Telic Solar features a Telit Cinterion module that supports LTE Cat M1 and NB2. It features 2G fallback to ensure connectivity in areas without 4G LTE coverage. To precisely locate assets worldwide, it supports:
- GPS
- GLONASS
- Beidou
- Galileo
The module is designed for low-power IoT applications that require reliable connectivity. It supports 3GPP Release (Rel) 13’s Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) features. These enable devices to wake up periodically and transmit data before returning to sleep mode.
The Telit Cinterion module ensures reliable connectivity even in locations with weak coverage. Its maximum coupling loss (MCL) of up to +15 dB/+20 dB maintains connections even with a severely attenuated signal path, like inside a warehouse.
The module is precertified by mobile operators, regulators and industry organizations, including Deutsche Telekom and the Radio Equipment Directive (RED). This ensures Telic Solar remains connected to a mobile network as it travels around a continent. It also enables Telic to offer a single-SKU solution that can be sold in various countries.
“Telit Cinterion’s state-of-the-art modules and support during development helped us create an innovative, powerful product for worldwide tracking applications.”
— DALIBOR SARIC, HEAD OF IoT HW DEVELOPMENT, OBERHACHING GERMANY
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