SCN: An Efficient Wireless Sensor Network Based Communication Scheme for Stacked Containers

Traditionally it’s impossible to monitor the freight’s status inside a container which is made of steel and makes data transmission by radio impossible, let alone the wired communication solutions. As container transportation is the prevailing method for international cargos, a feasible way to transmit status of the monitored cargo out of the stacked containers is very important, especially for ones with special requirements such as dangerous goods. This paper proposes a scheme to construct a communication network for stacked containers by deploying communicating nodes on the container’s surface to form a customized wireless sensor network. An effective routing algorithm is also proposed to exploit the characteristic of the network which is composed of smart containers. Simulation results show that the proposed interconnecting scheme makes an effective communicating infrastructure for upper layer container management services.