Their data plan of 750 192-byte packets per month stretched out: you get to send 25 packets per day. Extremely niched use cases, e.g. rescue beacon or weather/radiation monitoring far out in nowhere.
I guess if you have enough power to run a ML server, cameras, and remote sensors, you probably have normal internet though, eh?
Your scheme is only optimal if each flag has an independent 50% chance of being set or unset.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succinct_data_structure for some examples.
This could work for alerting/notifications in such a case.
A larger sensor array installation probably has enough power and space available for better options.
There definitely should be a lot of market for for such an extremely low-end kind of connectivity, with small hourly updates. Weather / water / fire monitoring stations, maybe even pipelines (as a fallback for the usual wires / fiber), a backup emergency link for trucks / cars / watercraft / small aircraft / drones. The built-in GPS is extra helpful.
No, this may be huge.
IMO that would make IoT devices a lot more attractive. The device works for years and you never even have to worry about setting up an account to pay a bill.
I assume that most of the shipping process is already tracked, but if the error rate is anything like airports and checked luggage, I can see why someone might want this.
Although, I suppose if the actual ships have internet service, then airtags may be good enough even in this case.
My first thought was to put the device itself inside but the antenna outside. But I suppose there are reasons why that won't work either?
put the antenna outside
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship#Size_categories
I'm not entirely sure it's necessary, either. Presumably the shipping company knows which boatyard/truck/ship has your container, where that boatyard/truck/ship is, and there is some sort of liability/insurance in place and I don't know that entire containers get lost with the same frequency as individual packages. (Those in the know, please correct me!)
There are some that fall overboard[1]. I'm sure it's not huge compared to the global volume shipped, but the risk is there.
---
1. https://www.supplychainbrain.com/articles/33002-shipping-con...
I would love to know more about the industry in general. When you ship a container, what kind of tracking information do you get? Etc. Theoretically it's relatively easy (not easy but... relatively easy) for shipping companies to provide that info (they know that container X is on ship Y and presumably know where ship Y is and when it's expected in port) but, I don't know how that industry works.
I do know that there are a lot of sensors you can attach to individual packages that let you know if your packages have exceeded g-force, temperature, or orientation thresholds during shipping. They're not necessarily wireless or satellite enabled, but when the package arrives, they make it possible to verify that the package has remained within acceptable limits during transit. I imagine at least some of that tech is used in the container shipping industry as well. Maybe.
I haven't worked in the industry, but I have worked for FedEx for a short time. I have to imagine there are at least some similarities.
At FedEx, you're supposed to scan each package "received" at the warehouse. And then scan it again when it's loaded onto a truck.
But when you have so many packages to deal with, sometimes boxes go onto the wrong truck. Sometimes boxes go onto the right truck, but they don't get scanned.
Sometimes boxes are mislabeled. Or misrouted.
Sometimes the recipient goes out of business. Or moves.
Sometimes the label is unreadable.
Sometimes there are multiple different addresses on the box.
I'm sure all that stuff happens to containers as well. Especially when the largest ships are above 14000 TEU.
Of course if someone wants to do something nefarious they'll be able to just bash your device with a hammer to disable it, but that's true no matter where it is mounted.
Malicious abuse is usually found fairly quickly in that industry and usually obvious it is happening. It is accidental and environmental that are the bigger problems. The more you harden for the environment the higher the cost on build, install, and replacement.
There are several key factors that go into making 10,000 of something. I can make 1-2 wickedly hardened items as prototypes. But make 10k of them takes a different set of skills and cost factors. Then you have to pay guys decent rates to go out and install/maintain them. Remember the guys running these companies are very cost sensitive. You can literally wipe out their whole margin on one container if you cost too much.
Endpoint tracking/scanning which they use the majority of the time is shockingly effective. Not perfect but very effective. Tracking the vehicle the item is on is usually more cost effective. For some loads it makes sense to track it that sensitively but most of the time it does not matter. Our cost budget for just materials (no manufacture) was 20-50 dollars a unit. We could not get anywhere near that. Just the radio was most of the budget let alone the cables, board, ics and case and battery. So the project was shelved. There are companies out there that make these sorts of things. But their costs are usually 500-3000 per unit plus install/ongoing costs.
From a simplistic view - the satellite is flying over and dragging a beam a few kilometers wide over your antenna. The more time it has hitting the antenna, the higher chance you'll be able to get your messages up/down before it have moved on.
If your antenna is buried under a stack of metal and has a pencil thin view of space - you're not going to be getting a lot of data across.
For systems that I've worked with that have firmware that small or even smaller have had power budgets in the <50mA/hour range... This modem uses up to a full amp at 3.3V (presumably only while transmitting but I'd bet its receive mode still busts that power budget in under a minute).
I can't think of the use cases for these modems that use that little data and have that much of a power draw...
So if someone has 10,000 devices to update, this might be doable with one stream.
Wouldn't help a hobbyist or small batch IOT device.
And presumably much of the power is as you mention transmit, because its talking to a satellite, not a device 1/2 a mile away.
Large asset tracking.
That's if you're using it as the only channel (i.e. your data plane). It still works fine as a control plane or a signaling channel, e.g. so you know your remote sensor now has 100GiB of data ready to be collected.
That said, even as a data channel, you can pack a lot of information into a 192 byte packet; and 4800 bytes per day is plenty for some use cases - including one that's been rattling in my mind for years and the best solution I had come up with was a fixed-wing drone loitering over a site and exchanging data over a 2.4/5Ghz link
Here's the most recent one they posted: https://www.shapetechnology.co.nz/doc-deploys-remote-shape-e...