Enabling real-time fleet route planning and execution in a pervasive transportation environment

With the proliferation of wireless broadband technologies and the development of advanced smart phones, the transportation and logistics industry is well poised to leverage the advantages of ubiquitous connectivity to provide more reliable, efficient and responsive services. In particular, in the changing landscapes of supply chain management, the transportation management system (TMS) segment is required to support real-time flow of information between the route optimization/planning software and field execution: enabling dynamic re-routing of deliveries and granular tracking of packages. In this paper, we explore a mobile software architecture for bridging the gap between planning and execution in a pervasive transportation landscape empowered by next generation wireless communication and smart phone technologies. We identify key challenges in developing the mobile infrastructure and report on lessons learnt in implementing a prototype simulator for a generic Java Mobile Edition (J2ME) enabled mobile device.