Preface

The port of Livorno and the Tuscan Guasticce have started an experimentation of a “Cargo Community Systems” that using low cost technologies, like passive R-FID UHF, can speed up the process of access control and data acquisition on the goods. The above-mentioned project focuses on technology transfer of the “iTPass” system, already tried and tested by Interporto Toscano: thanks to this system is possible to know the goods flow with a specific detail in term of origin/destination of each vehicle, typology and quantities transported by individual vectors. The “iTPass” system provides a valuable tool for the automatic access control (personnel and cargo carries) able to track goods and vehicles passing through the Interporto Toscano. These data are hosted on web portal.

Med.i.t.a project aims to implement, by technology transfer, a “Cargo Community System” that is able to overcome the territorial boundaries by making a unique system and shared procedures. Using low-cost “passive R-FID UHF tags” the security and data sharing certificates for all modes of transport along the network will be guaranteed.

MED.I.T.A. Project Target

Taking into account the previous assumptions the goals of MED.I.T.A project are the following:

• to extend and enforce the communication network in the Mediterranean area

• to guarantee efficiency of this network developing a goods tracking system for land and sea traffic using innovative technologies and automatic control processes. Such a system permits to improve links between the different stakeholders and ensure, through the goods tracking, a better security level

• to use low-cost technologies in order to ensure the maximum diffusion of this system

• to develop ad hoc data mining process enables to manage and control the large amount of data that can be generated by such a pervasive system

The “tracking technologies” will be selected according to the “environmental context”:

• “R-FID UHF” systems for the land-side, ports and inland terminals

• Web-platform in order to share information between the members of MED.I.T.A. project

In order to control the process, the “central” subject will be represented by a Certification Authority (in the following called C.A.) charged to validate the R-FID tag.

Advantages

Transport operators

Thanks to the automatic gates and the R-FID UHF system recognition, operators will reduce, for instance, the access time and more in general they will reduce all activities that need to be checked in the load carried.

Terminal operators

The R-FID UHF system permits to know the origin and destination of each vehicle. This information will be useful for the Terminal Operator in order:

• to optimize the goods scheduling

• to improve the control system

The pervasive presence of gates within the platform (each operator may have a number of gate variables dependent on the number of points of input-output) will allow to follow for macro areas the position of the vectors within the system itself; this also will provide processes to update travel time between (for instance) different ports or inland terminals or time need for specific operations within a single node (port or inland terminal).

The C.A. will load on the system the characteristics of vehicles and the goods transported. This information will be replicated on each remote server. Using this approach each partner can upload or download data about traffic flow and then will be able to know the state of system in different time horizons.

So, an important result will be a large Database including a lot of useful information to plan a better program management: these data are frequently unknown or difficult to estimate and then this system can support operators in the economics and transportation fields.