An Open-System Transportation Security Sensor Network: Field-Trial Experiences

Cargo shipments are subject to hijack, theft, or tampering. Furthermore, cargo shipments are at risk of being used to transport contraband, potentially resulting in fines to shippers. The Transportation Security Sensor Network (TSSN), which is based on open software systems and service-oriented architecture principles, has been developed to mitigate these risks. Using commercial off-the-shelf hardware, the TSSN can detect and report events that are relevant to appropriate decision makers. However, field testing is required to validate the system architecture and to determine if the system can provide timely event notification. Field experiments were conducted to assess the TSSN's suitability to monitor rail-borne cargo. Log files were collected from these experiments and were postprocessed. We present the TSSN architecture and results of field experiments, including the time taken to report events using the TSSN and the interaction between various components of the TSSN. These results show that the TSSN architecture can be used to monitor rail-borne cargo.