Estimating the performance of intelligent transport systems wireless services for multimodal logistics applications

Various wireless technologies including radio frequency identification (RFID), bluetooth, cellular networks and dedicated short range communications (DSRC) might have an impact on logistics and transport operations. Among them, DSRC stands out as a broadband communications technology which has been designed to provide a general purpose Radio-Frequency (RF) link between vehicles and network infrastructure. As such, DSRC is capable of implementing the physical layer of an Internet Protocol (IP) bearer based network designed to facilitate the monitoring and coordination of portside vehicular traffic. This unprecedented application of wireless networking has the potential to greatly enhance the management of the flow of goods and resources, particularly within large, international ports whose activities comprise multimodal operations such as the use of road haulage to move cargo transported by sea. Given the need for reliable services in non-safety business applications, in this work an Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) approach is used to address two issues. First, in wireless networks reliable data transfer transport layer services are affected where there is an apparent increase in mobility when access point coverage areas are reduced to counter the effects of path loss in the physical layer. Second, a service provisioning protocol intended for vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) data transfer is proposed to illustrate the importance of cumulative costs in wireless networks used for logistics applications. The analysis covers the average response time for requesting on-demand services within the portside network considered. The results of the analysis confirm the suitability of the approach used to provide a logistics network capable of meeting the requirements demanded in multimodal logistics.