Implementation of CoAP and its Application in Transport Logistics

The use of web services for sensor networking applications is seen as an important part in emerging M2M communications. The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is proposed by the IETF to optimize the use of the RESTful web service architecture in constrained nodes and networks, for example Wireless Sensor Networks. We present an IP based solution to integrate sensor networks used in a cargo container with existing logistic processes, highlighting the use of the CoAP protocol for the retrieval of sensor data during land or sea transportation. This solution is implemented and evaluated on TinyOS and Contiki, two widely researched embedded system architectures. Our preliminary results show that the performance of CoAP compared to HTTP based resource retrievals performs better in constrained environments such as a cargo container containing several embedded devices.