The next generation of wireless network will be doing a lot more than just enhancing your smartphone’s download speeds.
5G technology could soon help the Port of Virginia improve efficiency, save money and lessen its environment impact. Researchers at several Virginia higher education institutions want to help port employees accurately track how much cargo is in a container at any given moment.
“Once you have that information in real time, you can imagine the benefit to all the business processes,” said Sachin Shetty, associate director of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University.
Shetty and other researchers are exploring what it would take for the port to have accurate data on information like the locations, fullness and condition of its containers.
Port employees currently know the best practices for shipping, Shetty said. They can adjust schedules and load the containers they think are full, but they can only so do much.
“Right now, the optimal process is subjective, qualitative, but not quantitative,” Shetty said.
Virginia Port Authority leaders began to talk with the researchers about their issues with overcapacity and container management, and Shetty’s team began to think of ways to overcome those challenges. They knew sensors could track the data but realized only something like a 5G network could transmit that data effectively.
“Innovation is one of the port’s core values,” said Joseph Ruddy, chief innovation officer at the port authority, in a news release. “Real-time insights on cargo loads could provide game-changing benefits to every player in the logistics chain.”
The benefits of a container tracking system extend well beyond making the port more efficient, Shetty said. A shipping company, for example, might be able to send one large ship on a voyage instead of two smaller, emptier loads. They would be saving money and decreasing their environmental footprint.
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In the future, Shetty said researchers will have to figure out how best to implement a full-scale system of sensors and how many 5G base stations would be needed. That would also be the source of the project’s big upfront costs — around $200,000 per base station. He estimated anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million for the rest of the sensor network, depending on the number of containers.
The research effort is part of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative — a $25 million program designed to connect Virginia higher education institutions and industry in research efforts related to cybersecurity and related areas. It’s funded through the 2018-20 state budget.
Shetty said researchers want to begin planning and implementing a full-scale system in 2020. Funding for the system could come from the Department of Defense, the cyber initiative and other sources, he added.
“There’s a lot of interest, so we feel that we can definitely start small, and scale it up as we get additional funding for infrastructure,” Shetty said.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, firstname.lastname@example.org.